Terry Coney, president of the NAACP’s Lakeland Branch, considered going to Tallahassee on Wednesday to join the “Stop the Black Attack” rally at the Florida Capitol.
But Coney chose a different location to voice his opposition to the policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis, particularly the Florida Department of Education’s rejection of a high school course devoted to African-American studies.
Coney joined other civil rights leaders this afternoon, standing across the street from the site of the former Rochelle High School, the all-Black school from which Coney graduated in 1968. He said the location symbolized the need for Florida’s students to learn about the full experience of Black Americans.
“But let’s remember, in the state of Florida, consistently, around the state of Florida, we don’t have African-American studies taught,” Coney said. “African American history is American history. So that history should be entwined in African-American and American history in all schools around the state of Florida.”
Coney stood along with about 20 others Wednesday in the parking lot of Coney Funeral Home. (He is not related to the owners.) The gathering included Willie Mincey Jr., president of the NAACP Winter Haven branch; Lorenzo Robinson, president of the Paul A. Diggs Neighborhood Association; and Veronica Rountree, vice president of the NAACP Lakeland chapter and president of the Valencia/Pinehurst Neighborhood Association.
Stephanie Yocum, president of the Polk Education Association, joined others in condemning the Department of Education for blocking state schools from offering the newly developed Advanced Placement class on African-American studies.