Kamala Harris to travel to Florida and speak out against state’s new Black history standards

The Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Florida this Friday to make critical remarks about the approval of new standards by the Florida Board of Education for teaching Black History in schools.

A White House official announced the trip in an initial announcement shared with NBC News. The trip will focus on efforts to “protect basic freedoms – specifically, freedom to teach and learn America’s true and full history.”

The official stated that Harris, whose mom was a civil-rights activist, would also meet with educators, civil-rights leaders, and elected officials. Her last visit to Florida took place in April.

Harris, in remarks on Thursday, criticized efforts by some states to “push revisionist history” and ban books.

She said, “Just yesterday, in Florida, middle school students were taught that slaves benefited from their slavery.” At a convention of the traditionally Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta Inc., she added, “They insulted us in an effort to gaslight us and we won’t stand for it.”

The Florida Board of Education adopted new standards for Black History on Wednesday. In a 216 page document, the board outlines how schools should teach students about slavery and how some Blacks benefited because it gave them valuable skills they could use to their “personal advantage.”

NBC South Florida reported that a law enacted in 2022 called the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act” or the “Stop WOKE Act” required changes to the curriculum.

Florida Education Association (a teachers’ union that represents about 150,000 teachers in the state) has criticized the new framework as “a step backward.”

William Allen and Frances Presley Rice are members of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup. They defended the standards, calling them “rigorous and thorough” and saying that they were meant to demonstrate “that certain slaves developed highly-specialized trades, from which they benefited.”

Officials at the White House said that Harris will also discuss gun violence, voting rights and women’s body choices during her visit.

Harris has taken a prominent role in recent weeks in the efforts of the administration to portray gun safety measures, and abortion protections, as an attempt to protect fundamental liberties.

She traveled to Nashville in April after two Black Democratic lawmakers were expelled by state GOP legislators. They have been reinstated since then for their protests against gun violence.