Protesters march through Miami to object to Florida’s Black history teaching standards

From The Associated Press

Dozens of teachers, students and labor leaders marched to a Miami school district headquarters Wednesday to protest Florida’s new standards for teaching Black history, which have come under intense criticism for what they say about slavery.

The protesters who marched to the School Board of Miami-Dade County objected to new curriculum standards that, among other things, require teachers to instruct middle school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has repeatedly defended the new language while insisting that his critics, including Vice President Kamala Harris and two leading Black Republicans in Congress, are intentionally misinterpreting one line of the sweeping curriculum.

“These new state standards that DeSantis has come up with will not be tolerated in our schools. We will not let our children be taught that slaves benefited from their slavery. That’s a lie,” said march organizer Marvin Dunn, a professor emeritus of psychology at Florida International University.

Keep reading about the protests.

Our breaking news page has followed this series of events.