By Pat Bryant*
A 15-day “Rolling Protest” against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Maga Republican Party new Jim Crow policies ended with a lot of national and local news coverage plus declarations by progressive Blacks, Labor and LGBTQ organizations to ignite an unprecedented vote against “white supremacy” candidates in the 2024 elections.
A hallmark of the group was 27 college aged Black youth who made the journey to remind these communities of the 1961 Freedom Riders who challenged racial discrimination in interstate transportation and for the right to vote with their lives at stake. Unlike the Freedom Riders 62 years ago when those Freedom Riders were met by violent white mobs and arsonists, these were greeted with police protection as the Proud Boys watched from a distance.
Many in these communities knew little of the terrors— beating and bus burning of the 60s nor the practice of segregation on buses of Blacks and whites in the South. Communities were glad and welcoming to the Freedom Riders who dared to stand up against Governor DeSantis and the MAGA Republicans.
The group targeted public library and school book bans of authors like Toni Morrison with free books to anyone that showed up. In 15 Florida cities there was free food, voter registration, petitions to undue abortion bans, Black Voter Matter tee shirts, thousands of banned books, and speeches.
The Transformative Justice Coalition, the National News Paper Publishers Association (a group of more than 200 Black newspaper publishers), NAACP, the Rainbow Push Coalition, Black Voters Matter, the League of Women’s Voters, and the American Federation of Teachers, a national union were the protest sponsors. A large 55 passenger bus, wrapped with an image of former Congressman John Lewis, transported young college aged African-Americans to 15 Florida cities where large diverse groups awaited their arrival.
The Rolling Protest was a call to vote in 2024, and every election and to begin voter registration now, although Republicans are making it harder to vote. Republican voter intimidation and suppression was not successful in Georgia in 2022 and many other states.The following are statements made by some of the Rolling Protest Freedom Riders at the Miami-Dade School Board meeting, where a group is reeling from mandatory Republican policies that make it difficult if not impossible to manage schools.
Joshua Raby
“Hi, my name is Joshua Raby. I’m 34 years old from Birmingham, Alabama. I recently stood before the Miami Dade School Board to urge the Board not to ban books from their students in the school system. I shared with the story that my mother was an educator. She would always tell us the reason she would invest in her students because she knew that in the old biblical scripture train up a child a way that they should go so when they grow older they will not depart. I reminded the school board members how important it was to remember when they first read books that led them to the imaginations of who they wanted to be one day when they grow up. Surely some of them didn’t want to be school board members. Maybe they wanted to be police officers, astronauts, or veterinarians. And at least they opened the book, the imagination of life. My mother is no longer living on this earth. If she were she would be very unhappy in what we are doing with children”.
Kitty Carson
“Good evening everyone. My name is Kandace also known as Kitty Carson. I currently serve as an activist with Jacksonville NOW as well with the Northside Coalition under the mentorship and tutelage of Ben Frazier in Jacksonville, Florida. On April 21 I was the lead organizer for the Jacksonville branch of the Walkout2learn movement to stand in solidarity with the youth as it pertained to their disapproval of books being banned, as well as the numerous egregious bills passed and signed by Governor DeSantis during the volatile legislative session that has since passed. Today as a Freedom Rider with the Transformative Justice Coalition, I’ve come to serve notice that as it relates to our Stay Woke theme, be mindful that Ephesians 6:12 states “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. Effective today I declare that the powers that be will no longer continue to prevail in their plan to make black, brown, immigrant, and LGBTQIA youth as well as adults the most repudiated communities here in the state of Florida. Please expect us as a whole to stay woke because this movement doesn’t plan to nod off anytime soon”.
Francesca Mitchell
“Good evening, my name is Francesca Mitchell and I serve as the Region V Youth Board Member of the NAACP National Board of Directors. I am also a Floridian and a proud Florida High school graduate. Over two years ago, our governor and legislature embarked on a campaign to ban books, censor education, end support for LGBTQIA students in our schools, and end diversity equity and inclusion programs. These new legislative moves are rooted in white supremacy and bigotry and can be likened to modern-day Jim Crow laws. As a former public school student, I believe the greatest impact of banning books and the removal of DEI programs and conversations on race and racism in FL will affect Black representation in school curriculums and censor others from speaking their experiences and topics on race, gender equality, LGBTQIA+, and womanhood. Anything that speaks about the good, the bad, and the ugly of our true American history and culture (or should I say the wokeness of our culture) is met with aggression from those from these extreme politicized groups; books written by known authors, such as Amanda Gordon, are now being removed from bookshelves due to the content being labeled as “harmful” or “inappropriate” to young readers. Politicians, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis as well as many school board members, have elevated this extremism by attacking education and trying to systematically reverse the country back. Why? because education is the foundation. In 1939, Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall along with the board members of the NAACP understood that the key to desegregation of this country was through the lens of education. They understood that states would not be able to afford separate but equal and that we could change the country And train kids on tolerance, diversity and equity. So where are the extremist starting— in education I fear that in states, such as Florida, will limit the educational opportunities for younger students in their college preparedness and their understanding of global education. I fear that students won’t be able to gain the same opportunities that I have had due to these changes in the education system. This is truly an act of reverting this country back. That is why we are here. That why we are rolling this protest across this state. We will not go back. We will not go back.”
Karmiah Smith is a sophomore currently attending Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the
Arts where she is majoring in Communications. She was not a Freedom Rider but performed this poem at a rally in Daytona, Fla
WE THE PEOPLE
By Karmiah Smith
We the people of the United States
in order to a create a more perfect union
substitute freedom for the lack thereof
equate equality to power pyramids
peace to gun violence
freedom of speech to hate crime’s
When your country is built on the backs of slaves
The blood of my people
their raw hands surgically attached to the ground
Permanently picking
and plowing seeds in the earth they’ll never get to reap
Like when Breonna Taylor spent her days working countless of jobs
To achieve being a full time nurse
In return she was expecting medical scrubs
Not 5 bullet wounds in her body
She was expecting her title to be nurse
Not deceased drug addict
Our history and trauma is so erased, but so evident
They try to make us feel like we’re the crazy ones
That we don’t belong here
They separate us
Quarantine us off from the outside world
Try to draw us in with false pretenses
“This country is a melting pot, a variety of different cultures coming together
We are the metals being bonded that can only make us stronger”
What they don’t tell you
Is that to melt to us together they bring us to the floor
Use shackles to fasten our body to the ground
And then, when the damage is done.
When the history of their wrong doings are already embedded in America’s soil
We the people try to erase all evidence
Because if no one really knows what happened
they can’t blame us
If we taint the soil with enough white privilege
and white guilt
hidden in artificial flowers and crops
We may make people forget how damaged the soil really is.
And isn’t forgetting a wonderful way to establish peace?
To ensure submission?
To make our citizens so blissfully unaware of the atrocities and iniquities that make up our country
Because when we the people wrote the first amendment
When we made rules and guidelines prohibiting censorship
We meant to give protection only to the topics that portray us in good light
Because the real history of this country is too intense of a topic for our citizens to handle
Too deep of a subject to even begin to unravel
Which is why we will be banning books that don’t meet our guidelines
Forcing curriculum that is a little too “woke” out of our schools
Because we can’t brainwash the children
Because children, this generation will be the ones who eventually take our country, claim it as theirs
And the reputation of America must not be tarnished
They will need to know how to keep the citizens of tomorrow blissfully unaware
To keep the cycle of silence and censorship going.
And in order to do that,
They themselves must only ingest the information that we decide they need.
Because change is not in our bylaws
it’s not wanted nor needed
Actually it’s strongly forbidden
Unless we are the ones enacting the change
Because history belongs to the beholder
and as We the people, we have the right to change history how we see fit.
Strike out segregation
Hit the backspace on slavery
Hide the copious amounts of Native American bodies underneath our feet
And highlight the part where we fought to give you this country
Enlarge the font of the revolution
Draw neon arrows pointing to the fact that We are America
The land of the free.
The home of the brave.
And you should be proud of your country
Wear your patriotism as a badge of honor on your sleeve.
Because we fought to be here to provide a space for you
and sure your position in this country looked a little different 200 years ago
sure we took you for more help than human
sure it took you a while to be considered 4/4th of a person
but forgetting that
you’re here aren’t you?
How much problems could America have possibly caused you?
*Pat Bryant is a southern journalist who covers Freedom Movement struggles in the American South
