William B. Allen responded to criticism of his slavery curriculum by defending its accuracy and denoting its importance.

Vice President Kamala Harris has strongly condemned Florida lawmakers and conservative Florida adviser Dr. William B. Allen for their latest legislation targeting how slavery is taught in classrooms. This is just the latest in a series of restrictive laws implemented by Florida Gov. Ron Desantis in the past year, targeting LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights and school curricula.

The 2023 State Academic Standards for Social Studies outlines new changes regarding how slavery, the Holocaust, and other historical events will be taught. Among them is a “benchmark clarification” about how slaves “developed skills” which could be “applied for their personal benefit”. This new standard would be included in the Social Studies African American curriculum in schools across the state, aimed at sixth to eighth graders.

In response to this decision, Vice President Harris expressed her anger in a speech at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s national convention in Indiana on July 20. She said “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it. We who share a collective experience in knowing we must honor history in our duty in the context of legacy. There is so much at stake in this moment”. She also took to Twitter to call out the extremists in Florida who want to erase our full history and censor our truths.

Gov. DeSantis pushed back against Harris’s criticism on Twitter, using her statements to condemn the LGBTQ+ community again. Dr. William B. Allen, co-author of the pamphlet and current member of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup, defended himself in a sit-down with Local 10 News. He said “We need to tell the people’s stories the way they told their stories, not to fit our expectations”.

The debate over how slavery is taught in Florida schools has sparked a fierce debate between Vice President Harris and Gov. Desantis. With the Florida Times-Union reporting that the standards approved by the African American History Standards Workgroup, the future of school curricula in Florida has become a controversial topic across the nation.

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