Miami-Dade teachers, others march to protest Florida’s Black history standards

MIAMI – A group of “teachers, students, community members and Teamsters” marched to the Miami-Dade school board headquarters Wednesday in protest of Florida’s controversial Black history standards.

The protest, dubbed #TeachNoLies is being organized by the Miami Center for Racial Justice.

At issue in particular is a state curriculum standard to teach middle school students “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

“The phrase that they’re saying that there were ‘benefits’ that happened to enslaved people is just disgusting,” protester Jonathan Gartrelle told Local 10 News. “It denigrates the experience of 50 million enslaved Africans that were destroyed and brutally tortured and trafficked. And it tries to soften and whitewash history.”

He added: “This is another white supremacist tactic that we’re seeing again and again over and over in different places, this time in education.”

The march began at 11 a.m. at Booker T. Washington Senior High School, located at 1200 NW 6th Ave. in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood.

It’s scheduled to finish at 1 p.m. at the district’s administration building at 1450 NE 2nd Ave.

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