Vice President Kamala Harris will travel Friday to Jacksonville in a lastminute trip to forcefully condemn a newly approved set of standards for teaching Black history by the Florida Board of Education. The trip added to Harris schedule Thursday is meant to highlight the Biden administrations disagreement with the controversial standards a White House official said. Harris will be the first Biden administration official in the state since the rules were approved and will discuss the fight to protect fundamental freedoms specifically the freedom to learn and teach Americas full and true history. The first Black female vice president is also expected to speak in the LaVilla neighborhood a historically Black area that will be immediately impacted by the new standards. It is the latest development in the states ongoing debate over African American history including the education departments rejection of a preliminary pilot version of an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high school students which it claimed lacked educational value. The White House has spoken out forcefully against book bans and other steps to remove elements of American history from school curricula and the issue was included in Bidens reelection announcement video in April. Many Republican candidates chief among them Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have championed efforts to bar certain books from school libraries. On Thursday she warned against education rules that paper over historical realities. They push forward revisionist history Harris said Thursday at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.s th national convention. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it. The vice president has spent the summer months traveling the country to speak out in support of freedoms she and Democrats believe are under attack by Republicans including abortion and the right to learn. It marks the second time this year shes delivered highprofile remarks in the Sunshine State meant to condemn Republican attacks on rights. And on Friday she will convene parents educators civil rights leaders and elected officials to address these attacks and highlight the coalitions required to protection fundamental freedoms the official added. The presidents advisers view the issue as one that can galvanize Democrats in next years elections and Harris has appeared in front of base Democratic voters that include Black voters women and young people to deliver her message. The president has also taken a lead role in the administrations response to restrictive abortion bans including in remarks on the Juneteenth Holiday last month. Choosing to remember history not erase it to read books not ban them no matter how hard some people try Biden said in remarks in June. The issue has been bolstered by polling and research showing Americans opposed to banning books that include information on slavery and other issues. It has also been shown that Americans are more likely to want to learn about the history of the United States than to read about it in a book. The President has also spoken out against the use of the N-word and other terms that are offensive to African Americans in the past and has called for an end to use of racial epithets such as “n*****” and “N-word’s” in the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S.
Harris heads to Florida ready to forcefully condemn state’s new Black history standards. Harris: ‘I’m not going to sit back and allow this to happen’
