Black leaders protest Florida’s rejection of AP African American studies course

• Black legislators, preachers and activists gathered and threatened to pull their students from Florida schools and universities in response to DeSantis' policies, Tallahassee Democrat reports.

What they're saying: "If you would have studied history long enough, you would have known to mess with us in education always ends in your defeat,” Sharpton told the crowd, per CNN.

• "Our children need to know the whole story … to not only know how bad you were but to know how strong they are. They come from a people that fought from the back of the bus to the front of the White House."
• "He's doing it for political reasons," Sharpton said of DeSantis. "He's trying to do the Baby Trump thing and come with a new racial divide like he is in some way, going to liberate America from its past."
• DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Context: The new AP course received strong backlash from DeSantis and conservative politicians who claimed it teaches critical race theory, a college-level framework that is rarely taught in grade school but is often conflated with teachings on systemic racism.

• DeSantis' administration tried to block the course in January, telling the College Board that is "inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value."
• The College Board released its new curriculum for the course, which excluded some of the content that DeSantis had opposed, such as teachings on Black Lives Matter and reparations.
• The decision to exclude certain topics from the finalized curriculum has since faced criticism, with many accusing the College Board of bowing to political pressure, which it rejects.

Go deeper: New Jersey to expand AP African American Studies curriculum