Al Sharpton said Wednesday that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was using “Jim Crow-type tactics” in Florida as a way to wage “war” on “aspects of history.”
“The governor there has declared a war on aspects of history, what can the U.S. Department of Education do to federally protect us from these types of Jim Crow-type tactics?” Sharpton asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona during the opening day of the National Action Network’s 2023 convention in New York City.
“That’s a great way of putting it,” Cardona said. “Jim Crow-type tactics.”
DeSantis signed legislation protecting parental rights similar to HR 5 in Florida in March 2022, which came following a spate of lawsuits across the country centered around clandestine social transitions of children in schools.
DeSantis also sought to let parents object to the use of certain materials in school curricula, which became a hot-button political issue in 2021 as parents protested the use of critical race theory, which holds that America is fundamentally racist, and teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race.
Parents across the country also protested the use of books with sexually explicit content in recent years, prompting some states to act to remove them from schools.
House Republicans unveiled similar legislation at the federal level in March, and passed the legislation March 24.
DeSantis and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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