Democratic Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson joined dozens of teachers, students, and educational activists in marching to a Miami county school board meeting to protest Florida‘s black history teaching standards, a controversial policy debate in recent months.
Around 50 protesters, including Pearson, marched a mile from a majority-black neighborhood to attend the Miami-Dade County school board meeting, the same district Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) flipped red in 2022. He was the first Republican to do so since 2002.
BIDEN TO TRAVEL TO MAUI TO MEET WITH FIRST RESPONDERS AND SURVIVORS OF WILDFIRES
Pearson was one of the speakers outside of the school board meeting on Tuesday as part of the “Teach No Lies” protest. He was one of the “Tennessee Three,” three Democrats expelled from the state legislature for participating in a protest for gun control following a mass school shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.
“The true history is that Black people have always fought to make America what it ought to be, and it has always resisted what it could be,” Pearson told the crowd Tuesday, per the Associated Press. “We’ve always fought for the America that we know is possible. That is not here yet.”
DeSantis has spearheaded several legislative measures targeted at Florida’s educational system, banning or restricting LGBT topics and critical race theory from being taught in schools. Most recently, he engaged in a back-and-forth battle with the College Board over its Advanced Placement African American Studies course.
Pearson was sworn back into the state House of Representatives in April. He and Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones were unanimously reappointed by their respective county commission councils shortly after being expelled. Pearson and Jones won reelection to their seats in the Tennessee General Assembly on Aug. 3.
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Florida’s black history education standards were passed last month and require lessons on race to be taught in an “objective” manner that does not seek to “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view,” according to the course outline.
DeSantis has defended the educational standards, despite the course outline including instruction on how slaves benefited from the skills they learned. Vice President Kamala Harris and the Florida governor have taken turns throwing insults and criticism at each other over the state’s black history standards.
