AHA executive director Jim Grossman has published an op-ed in the Miami Herald on the Florida Department of Education’s new African American history standards, which “miss the crucial point when it comes to American slavery: The institution was grounded in property rights, and that property was human.” Grossman wrote, “In high school, the curriculum mentions‘contributions’ 23 times (55 in the full K-12 document) without one mention of ‘white supremacy’ and only a single reference to ‘lynching.’ Students will learn about the exploits of patriotic Black soldiers without learning why none of these warriors were awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I or II. . . . [T]he remedy for discomfort is not to ignore or marginalize the lasting effects of legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions that condoned buying and selling other humans for nearly 250 years.”
