Attorney Ben Crump, Tallahassee NAACP President and attorney Mutaqee Akbar, Rev. RB Holmes and Rev. Al Sharpton (not shown) continue to fight Gov. DeSantis’ racist policies. | Photos by Will Andrews
BY DANTE MORRISON | Contributor
TALLAHASSEE — For the Rev. Al Sharpton, it was his third trip to Florida’s capitol city within eight months. This time, he spoke from the pulpit of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, the landmark church bearing the civil rights legacy that launched the first student bus boycott.
Sharpton is the MSNBC host of “Politics Nation” and president of the National Action Network. He slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis for implementing overtly racist policies and laws aimed at undermining and suppressing Black Floridians.
“We have come to ground zero for civil rights fights. We cannot excel with our history and people being under attack,” he asserted.
Rev. Al Sharpton
Black quality of life in Florida has been under assault for a while. Now, Black faith leaders have resumed their leadership roles by mobilizing communities to push back. And they are winning the fight.
In 2022, DeSantis succeeded in passing voter suppression laws and one that had an election police force tied to it. Recently, a Black grandmother who was told she was eligible to vote was arrested and jailed in Tallahassee. She was charged with voter fraud.
Tallahassee NAACP President and attorney Mutaqee Akbar, attorney Ben Crump and Rev. RB Holmes, pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, persuaded the state attorney to drop the charges.
Akbar said, “Florida will be WOKE. Florida will stay WOKE.” This is one of the major efforts emerging throughout Florida.
Legislation pushed by DeSantis also eliminated one of the few Black majority congressional districts in Florida stretching from Quincy to Jacksonville. To their credit, the Republican legislators made few changes to the map. However, DeSantis, who insisted on eliminating the Black district, refused to pass the state budget until Republican lawmakers approved his map.
It was a stunning breach of the separation of powers because the Republicans folded. Like many of the racially discriminatory laws, the congressional district has been struck down and is being appealed.
Restoration of the Black district is possible because court rulings say the DeSantis plan is “diminishing minority voting strength in North Florida in violation of the Florida Constitution.” And even the conservative US Supreme Court has set a new standard condemning racial gerrymandering.
Probably the most egregious policy change was the implementation of new curriculum teaching standards that critics say sanitize Black history. One of the more disturbing talking points for teachers was the description of slavery as an apprenticeship program that prepared people in bondage for a trade.
The national outrage also revived the collaboration of organizations and the faith community to promote and teach the truth about Black history and the effort to subjugate Black people all over again.
“This is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. We are going to continue to call out the governor and other governors across this country who want to be president with a mean-spirited platform,” Holmes said.
The Black attack is a central theme in the DeSantis presidential campaign that is flailing. That strategy soured on the national electorate, which said it didn’t want America to be like Florida.
