Florida education commissioner backs out of town hall in predominately Black Miami Gardens neighborhood

“I feel as though clearly the racism that has been present in many of the actions and activities from this administration continues,” one concerned parent said.

There will be a town hall in Miami Gardens on Aug. 10 about the controversial Black history curriculum, but Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. pulled out of the event. 

“The governor and commissioner are bold enough to put forth these policies but not bold enough to face these people,” Democrat State Sen. Shevrin Jones told the Miami Herald.

Jones, Democratic state Senator Rosalind Osgood and Miami-Dade School board member Steve Gallon III (District 1) organized the forum for Thursday night at Antioch Baptist Church. They convened the town hall following a change in the Florida Board of Education’s controversial new standards for teaching Black history. 

TheGrio’s Gerren Keith Gaynor reported that the statewide history curriculum “would teach middle schoolers that enslaved Black people benefited from slavery because they learned new skills and that Black Americans committed violence during race massacres.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has joined civil rights leaders, educators, and elected officials in Jacksonville, Florida, to condemn Republican leaders over how students will learn about slavery and racism in America.

Community members can attend the town hall to voice concerns about changes to the Black history curriculum. According to the latest U.S. Census data, Miami Gardens is home to more than 110,000 people, of whom roughly two-thirds are Black, the Miami Herald reports.

Diaz agreed to attend the event but CBS Miami was the first to report about his exit on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Diaz replied to the post: “There was nothing sudden” about his decision. “As I told the senator last week. I will be visiting schools throughout the state to welcome back students, parents and teachers for the first day of school.”

In light of Stephen Hunter Johnson’s 12-year-old son’s school experiences with racism, he was eager to share his perspective with Diaz.

“We’ve had to have conversations about the ‘n-word,”‘ Johnson said about his son. “And these standards don’t help any of that. Thank God I have a resilient kid.”

As the Miami Herald reports, Johnson feels “dismayed and disrespected as a Black Floridian” about Diaz’s decision not to participate in Thursday’s public forum. 

According to Jones, more than 1,000 people signed up for the event.

“I feel as though clearly the racism that has been present in many of the actions and activities from this administration continues,” Johnson said.

Gallon noted that “community members were looking forward to” speaking to Diaz directly.

“I’ve known Commissioner Diaz for decades. I’ve known him to be an individual of his word, but having not spoken to him directly, I don’t have any understanding about his reasoning,” Gallon said.

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