Florida Democrats to headline 'Banned Bookmobile' event on Saturday: report

22 July 2023

Editor's note: This story has been updated for clarity.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried will join lawmakers and advocates at a noon MoveOn Political Action Committee event on Saturday to distribute books that were restricted under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' new censorship laws, Florida Politics' AJ Gancarski reports.

According to Gancarski, immigration activist Thomas Kennedy, State Representatives Angie Nixon (D-House District 14) and Michele Rayner-Goolsby (D-House District 70), and Florida Freedom to Read Project founder Jen Cousins will be among the attendees at MoveOn's "Banned Bookmobile" tour stop in Tallahassee, the state's capital.

"The anti-American book bans are an attack on all of our freedoms, but the MAGA Republican Party cannot erase us," MoveOn PAC Executive Director Rahna Epting said. "DeSantis and MAGA Republicans' vision for our country is to censor all of our diverse backgrounds and to punish those who live, love, and think differently than they do. We won't surrender to their extremism, and our Banned Bookmobile tour will give access to books that celebrate the immense diversity of perspectives that are part of the human experience and essential to our development as a society."

Politico's Andrew Atterbury noted on Friday that he updated policies are "backed unanimously by the state Board of Education" and "encompass the controversial 2022 law regulating how race can be taught in Florida schools — something that was specifically sought by the Republican governor and presidential contender. Board members and state officials defended the updated curriculum that they say touches on the 'darkest' parts of US history against charges by opponents, including the state's largest teachers union, that the changes are an attempt to 'whitewash' what students are learning."

Vice President Kamala Harris tore into DeSantis' crusade — which now includes teaching young Floridians that slavery had its perks — in a powerful speech on Friday.

"Extremists pass book bans to prevent them from learning our true history — book bans, in this year of our Lord 2023. And while they do this, check it out," Harris said. "Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we'll not stand for it. We who share a collective experience in knowing we must honor history and our duty in the context of legacy. There is so much at stake in this moment."

Gancarski's article is available at this link.

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