Florida textbook publisher under fire for editing Rosa Parks’ story to omit race

17 March 2023

A textbook publisher in Florida is facing deep scrutiny for altering text for an African American history lesson on Rosa Parks' story to omit any references to race.

According to a report published by The New York Times on Thursday, March 16, the textbook publisher Studies Weekly made distinct changes to the narrative of Parks' historic events.

AL.com highlighted the changes in the text after revisions were made to omit racial references.

Per the news outlet: "In the current lesson on Rosa Parks, segregation is clearly explained: 'The law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down.'”

"In an updated version created for review by Florida’s textbook committee, race is not mentioned at all," the news outlet noted. “'She was told to move to a different seat,' the lesson said, without an explanation of segregation."

When questioned about the changes, Studies Weekly indicated that the decision was the result of Florida's newly passed law.

The glaring text edits and omissions come as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pushes for a statewide ban on educational topics and books involving studies on Critical Race Theory (CRT).

But despite the publisher's claims, the Florida Department of Education is arguing the publisher misconstrued the law. Per AL.com, the state department insists that "any publisher that 'avoids the topic of race when teaching the Civil Rights movement, slavery, segregation, etc. would not be adhering to Florida law.'”

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