Florida textbook removes reference of rosa parks' race to adhere to 'stop woke act'

by SHARELLE B. MCNAIR March 20, 2023 ------------------------- Everyone knows that Rosa Parks was a Black woman who fought for Black people to have the right to sit where they wanted.

However, publishers are being asked to remove any reference to Parks’ race in Florida to comply with new state law. The Hill reports regulations require that race relations be removed from

the lesson to get a Florida committee’s approval. The current lesson, issued by Studies Weekly, is described as “the law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a

white person wanted to sit down.” An early version of the study was changed to, “she was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin,” but then a second version was

corrected to read, with race completely erased, read, “she was told to move to a different seat.” The new social studies curriculum in the Sunshine State prompts the flagging of any topics

considered as critical race theory, the hot topic of collegiate-level lessons used to explain systemic racism in the United States. Thanks to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s

Department of Education mandates the teaching of Black history and critical race theory banned in Florida public schools. However, in a statement issued by the department, lessons on the

iconic civil rights leader and others have been encouraged, regardless of the law. “It would be impossible to teach about the significance of Rosa Parks without discussing her race,” the

statement read, according to Business Insider. “Any publisher who attempts to avoid the topic of race when discussing Rosa Parks or topics such as the Civil Rights Movement, slavery,

segregation, etc. would not be adhering to Florida law.” The new standards were implemented last year after DeSantis signed the Stop Woke Act, removing thousands of books not approved by the

state from school classrooms, even a grade-level textbook that claims to have mentioned slavery 189 times.