At this point, there’s no denying the white and eternally fragile agenda of MAGA conservatives to rewrite American history in a way that waters down or outright omits the nation’s overwhelming history of systemic racism. Now that President Donald Trump — the commander-in-protecting-white-people-from-their-delicate-feelings — is back in office, every institution of learning and expression within the grasp of Trump and his miseducated acolytes is either being taken over completely or they’re being threatened with defunding should they refuse to put Black history through the MAGA whitewashing machine.
So, it’s left to Black people to educate their own communities, as it has been over the last few years as Republican legislators across red state America pass legislation to ban non-whitewashed Black history into oblivion.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, last Tuesday, students and community members in Florida — the state where educators have been instructed to teach that America’s historic race massacres, such as the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the Tulsa race massacre and the Rosewood race massacre, were “acts of violence (were) perpetrated against and by African Americans” — were invited to attend a new even titled Black History Learning Tree on Florida International University’s campus, where they learned about the Rosewood massacre and other events that impacted Black America from former psycology professor Dr. Marvin Dunn.
“It’s important now to stand up. It’s important now to resist this attack on our democracy,” Dunn told the Times. “Most of my colleagues, if not all of them at FIU, are vulnerable. I don’t expect any of them to sit under that tree with me, and I don’t blame them. I’m sure there’ll be photographs taken of who is there and reports given to the new president about who is who under that tree.”
In an Instagram post, Dunn noted that he “did not ask permission” to teach Black history under a tree near the campus library, where he said he would continue to teach this summer as well as “give away BANNED BOOKS.”
So, for their first of what will hopefully be many lessons on the achievements and perseverance of Black America, Dunn taught true education seekers about Rosewood, a predominantly Black Florida town that was lynched and burned by a white mob after a white woman, Fannie Taylor, lied about being attacked by a Black man. Incidentally, Dunn, who owns five acres of land in Rosewood, was involved in a series of incidents with a racist white neighbor, David Emanuel, who was convicted on six counts of federal hate crime charges in 2023, for shouting the N-word at Dunn and nearly hitting him and five other Black people on Dunn’s property with his truck.
Anyway, let’s get into the circumstances that prompted Dunn to create a space on campus for the truth to be taught.
From the Times:
In February, former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez was appointed interim president of FIU. Her appointment was the latest in a wave of conservative, well-connected politicians taking over presidencies at state universities under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Dunn’s Black history lesson comes at a time when the state has limited how Black history is taught in school, a trend seen nationally as the Trump administration has signed executive orders to eliminate what they consider diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and threatening to withhold funding from schools that they find ideologically out of line. At the same time, FIU and the rest of the state’s universities have had to weed out general education courses that include “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
Dunn, who spent his academic career at FIU, chose the tree as a way of institutionalizing Black history on the campus and designating a place where Black history will be taught, he said. Dunn said Black people have often used trees as a gathering spot, when in Africa elders gathered to make decisions and pass on oral history. “I don’t know of a single Black community that does not have a tree where usually Black men gather to socialize, tell stories, play the dozen, get drunk sometimes, but mainly to pass on our history,” he said. “That’s the tradition from which I come and I’m hoping that other universities will establish Black History Learning Trees as well as a model of protecting our history on those campuses.”
Efforts such as the one Dunn has embarked on are necessary, especially in states like Florida, where, in the last four years alone, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Stop WOKE Act,” declared that “DEI is over in Florida,” defended the rejection of an AP African American studies course, advocated for an ahistorical curriculum that teaches the benefits of slavery, and approved classroom materials provided by PragerU, which was founded by a proud racist and produced “educational” videos teaching that Frederick Douglass would have agreed with America’s choice to prioritize white supremacy over ending slavery.
In fact, in 2023, Florida’s racist approach to teaching America’s racist history (which is generally to not teach it at all) prompted Black churches in the state to start holding their own learning sessions the same way Dunn is now. Black churches across the country have been taking up the practice as well.
SEE ALSO:
Karen Gets Arrested After Racial Attack On Florida Cops Who Were Initially Letting Her Leave
MAGA Would Be Calling Black Democrats ‘DEI Hires’ If They Leaked White House War Plans
Former Professor Teaches Non-Whitewashed Black History Under A Tree At Florida International University
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