TAMPA, Fla — Recent changes to Florida's public school curriculum are creating a backlash.
The concern this time centers around the newly passed social studies standards for middle schoolers, including a section teaching kids that enslaved people developed skills that could be "applied for their personal benefit."
Earlier this week, Governor Ron DeSantis explained the change while on the 2024 presidential campaign trail.
"I think that they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life," he said.
But the folks withFaith in Florida aren't buying that. So they've created an online toolkit with links to resources on African American history.
"People came to this country with skills, okay? And those people developed skills despite slavery, not because of slavery," said the organization's Research and Policy Coordinator, Linda Wiggins-Chavis.
And they're not stopping there. The organization is also developing a curriculum, and they plan to work with churches across the state to teach it.
It hopes to reach as many people as possible, but they're especially hoping to reach kids.
"When you tell middle school children that slavery provided advantages to people. They're going to think, 'Oh, so it wasn't that bad,'" said Wiggins-Chavis.
Wiggins-Chavis is a former teacher leading the charge on that toolkit and curriculum. And she tells ABC Action News it's work of the utmost importance.
"We have to learn that history not only so that we know where we came from but so that we don't repeat the past," she said.
