The state of Florida’s action to completely remove Black history lessons from school curricula has been met with much controversy. Following this decision, which was made in response to public outrage at the sanitized and distorted versions previously taught, black community churches in the state are now filling the void.
Now, at the beginning of a new school year, the Rev. Gaston Smith, 57, was standing at the pulpit of at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City with a lesson on one of those chapters — he and other Black pastors across the state agreed their churches had no choice but to counter this decision and teach Black history themselves.
In the Heart of Liberty City, Churches Step Up
“Whenever there has been any kind of movement, particularly in the African American community, it started in the house of God. We cannot be apathetic, we cannot sit back, we cannot be non-vocal. We have to stand our ground, because the Bible says we have to speak up for those that cannot speak up for themselves,” he shared.
This motion began with his church, which teaches black history on Wednesday nights in a session called ‘Winning Wednesdays’, defying the state’s restrictions on schools. At one such event, the television screens were displaying the words “BLACK HISTORY MATTERS,” an appropriate response for the setting also known as “The Ship,” a landmark in the largely Black neighborhood. It had been present for many key incidents of the previous century, guiding devotees through the Jim Crow era, peak years of the KKK, the civil rights movement and, more recently, the racial justice protests.
An outpouring of support was given in response to the church’s pledge. Faith in Florida, a nonprofit alliance of religious organizations, created an 11-chapter toolkit to assist churches and make recommendations for books, articles, videos, and reports that examine the Black experience through what it refers to as “the lens of truth.” The toolkit’s numerous chapters provide material suitable for readers of all ages; one is titled “From Africa to America,” and another focuses on “Race, Racism, & Whiteness.”
Almost 200 religious leaders from the United Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, and other religions rapidly signed up to use it. Everyone promised to incorporate lessons on Black history into their sermons, Sunday school lessons, or Bible study sessions to reach both parents and children.
Reclaiming History in Faith
The involvement of the churches harkens back to the vital role that many played in the effort to end segregation and achieve voting rights. “There’s always been that connection,” said Loren Lyons, a spokesperson for the coalition. “And so, we pretty much said that because of what’s going on in the curriculum and what’s going on in Florida right now, it’s time that we took back that power.”
Many Black churches are not new to discussing Black history, but formalizing it through a teaching commitment, tool kit, and devoted lessons is. The idea came from the coalition’s executive director, Rev. Rhonda Thomas, who was disappointed by the approval of the 2022 law championed by GOP presidential candidate for 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis. The bill is known as the “Stop Woke Act,” and it restricts classroom discussions about race.
Teaching “Raw and Real” African American History
Thomas made the decision to act this spring as the state began to revise Black history curriculum requirements to comply with the law: She would mobilize as many faith leaders as possible to teach “raw and real” African American history from their pulpits.
When the revised standards were announced this summer, she was even more determined after reading a passage requiring that middle-school students be taught “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” The clause that stated training should be adapted to ensure that no student experiences guilt or “psychological distress” because of prior behaviors by members of the same race, according to Thomas, drew her special ire.
The 63-year-old Thomas, a native of Miami, could only recall visiting Virginia Key as a young child since it was the only beach where Black people were permitted. The first group to eat at the cafeteria was her high school graduating class. Her mother-in-law still has the card she had to show to be permitted onto Miami Beach to clean houses. “We look at history as, ‘Oh, that happened way back then,’” she said. “No, no, no, no. It’s not that far.”
She had already been preaching for a long time when a discussion with a voting rights activist changed her life. He claimed that the Black church used to be the community’s heartbeat— “to the point that we became a threat, and that’s why we were bombed.” Then he asked, “When have we last been a threat?”
The pastor thought about it and decided: “I want to be a threat.” She had lost sight of the Black church’s influence. Not anymore.
Faith in Florida’s Call to Action
Faith in Florida’s website now greets visitors with a pop-up message imploring them to sign the pledge, declaring, “Because Black History is American History!”
The members of a special task force had a few objectives in mind as they put together the toolkit. They sought to encompass a period from pre-slavery to the present, including the Middle Passage, race riots and white supremacy, the Black Panther Party, and what they termed the “criminal injustice system.”
“We don’t want to whitewash anything,” task force participant Marlowe Jones, a Faith in Florida activist in Pasco County, said. “We want to tell the truth.”
Since July, there has been a phenomenal response. More than 260 religious organizations have signed an agreement to teach Black history. There also are synagogues, Catholic churches and mosques responding, as well as out-of-state churches. Faith in Florida is now getting requests to build out an entire curriculum — something Thomas hopes to tackle in time for the second half of the school year.
Her husband, the Rev. Ranzer Thomas, in a sermon centered on leaning on faith in times of struggle, wove in the year-long bus boycott in the mid-1950s in Montgomery, Ala., Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., a decade later and the March on Washington in 1963. Such historic moments, he told congregants, must now be taught by “people like you and I.”
“Yes, there is a fight of wanting to remove history from the school, but who was the first teacher that you ever met?” he asked. “You will be reminded that the first teacher is at home.”
Seventh-grader Terrence Williams listened from the pew where he sat with his older sister and uncle. After the service, he said he liked learning “my history and what my ancestors did to help us gain freedom.” Even if some of it made him feel sad. “They didn’t do anything wrong,” Terrence said, “and they had to fight for us.”
Near the front sat Mark Riley, a local high school history teacher and leader of the church’s youth ministry. Frustrated by the limitations that Florida education officials have imposed and the lack of a public pushback from his own superintendent, he was heartened to see the church taking a stand. As he listened to his pastor’s message, he was already thinking of how he would teach Black history during the youth Bible study he leads.
“It’s American history,” Riley said. “These kids have to know these things, and we can’t pick and choose what we teach.”
