Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Florida on Friday to criticize state approval of new standards for Black history that say slaves in some instances benefited from skills they learned in captivity.
Ms. Harris is expected to deliver remarks at Ritz Theater & Museum in Jacksonville “on the fight to protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to learn and teach America’s full and true history.”
A 216-page document approved by the Florida Board of Education this week includes updates to standards for Black history. One clarification in the document says: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The update caused an uproar, which reached the White House. Ms. Harris previewed her speech in remarks to the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. National Convention in Indianapolis.
“Just yesterday, in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Ms. Harris said. “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”
Updates to the standards were required by a 2022 law that was signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and dubbed the “Stop Wrongs To Our Kids and Employees Act,” or “Stop WOKE Act.”
William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, who are members of the African American History Standards Workgroup, defended the revisions as well-established and worth teaching.
“The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented,” they said, outlining examples such as shoemakers, blacksmiths, and other industry workers.
“Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history,” they said.
The debate is unfolding while Mr. DeSantis runs for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination on a platform that centers on parental rights and ensuring that educational materials are age-appropriate.
Some critics say his efforts go too far and amount to book banning, while his defenders say they are rooting out content that is clearly inappropriate for children.
Some critics faulted a second section of the new standards that says Black persons were at times perpetrators of violence during riots in the Reconstruction period and beyond.
“Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre,” the clarification says.
The Florida Education Association, a major teachers union, criticized the new standards as a “big step backward.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.