DeSantis is violating our constitutional rights | Dorothy Inman-Johnson

The Bill of Rights guarantees all of us five freedoms, not just the governor and those who agree with him.

Those freedoms are Speech, Religion, Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Assembly, and to Petition our Government on Grievances. The First Amendment of the Constitution, also, guarantees free speech rights to Americans (including Floridians) and the press. There is no addendum in the Constitution that gives any governor or legislature the authority to abridge those rights.

Yet, Gov. Ron DeSantis has redefined the word WOKE to mean anything that fits his purpose and discriminatory practices against Floridians who dare to disagree with him. Instead, the dictionary definition of WOKE is “alert, aware, and well informed”. Therefore, I am a proudly WOKE Floridian.

He, likewise, has misrepresented Critical Race Theory (CRT), an elective course only taught in colleges and universities, to fear monger parents that it is used for indoctrination of children in grades K-12. Such misconceptions allow the governor and his MAGA army to deceive the less informed into accepting his many violations of the rights of innocent Floridians.

Currently, he is using lies about CRT in his effort to remove AP African-American History courses from the Florida school curriculum, though the course was mandated by the Legislature in 1994. He is using CRT and his definition of WOKE to penalize teachers and school districts that teach factual Black history, include books by acclaimed Black authors in their libraries, and to drive good teachers who just want to teach from the profession. Hard to understand why he and some white folks are so afraid of the truth.

Here are a few facts from American history he is trying so hard to hide from generations of Florida schoolchildren.

FACT: My Black ancestors were kidnapped and brought to America on slave ships, as early as 1619.

FACT: Upon arrival, they were sold as “beasts of burden” to provide free labor for white landowners.

FACT: In most cases, they were treated to an inhumane existence…sold away from children and other family, denied education, beaten, and denied any human rights.

FACT: The American Civil War between southern and northern states was fought because southern white folks wanted to preserve slave labor under their rebel tradition.

FACT: These conditions persisted until the 13^th Amendment was enacted by Congress, abolishing slavery on Dec. 6, 1865.

FACT: Southern states adopted “Jim Crow” and state rights laws in the late 1800s that made continued discrimination against Black Americans legal despite the 13^th Amendment.

FACT: The White Supremacy group, the Ku Klux Klan, was founded on Dec. 24, 1865, to enforce these laws through violence following the passage of the 13^th Amendment.

FACT: These violations continued until, and even after in some southern states, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and enacted by Congress.

The current state of affairs here in Florida is a clear demonstration that white supremacist have taken over our state and are doing their best to divest Black Floridians of our constitutional rights that were so hard-won decades ago. They can only win if we remain silent and let them.

As a former youth activist in the 1960s in the Birmingham Civil Rights movement, I am ready at age 76 to fight back and reclaim our rights.

With the contributions we have made to building this country, we must first be willing to fight for our own rights before expecting others to follow.

Dorothy Inman-Johnson is an author, former educator, past Tallahassee mayor and city commissioner.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis is violating our constitutional rights | Dorothy Inman-Johnson