JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On Wednesday morning a motorcade of protesters sets off from downtown Jacksonville to Tallahassee.
They're joining a statewide march and rally at the capital against recent government actions they call "racist." Protesters include members of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville and young people with Florida Rising. Princess Damali Roberts is a graduate of a mentorship program for young activists with Florida Rising and will drive with a group of college and high school students.
"We're under attack so for me as a young person it gives me hope but it also shows me that I actually can do something," Roberts said. "We have an important history that needs to be remembered and respected."
They plan to protest moves by the governor. Most recently Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public colleges and rejected an Advanced Placement African American Studies pilot course for high schools.
DeSantis claims diversity programs try to "promote political activism" and indoctrinate students and that the AP course "lacked educational value."
"It's not that it's banning Black history," said Tia Bess, a volunteer with the parental rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty. "It's not that it's trying to change the curriculum, we just need to review what it says. I do have an issue with teaching reparations."
Bess takes issue with reparations, an optional topic in the AP course, and Black queer studies.
"Discussing with a few local youth and they'll tell me they feel helpless," she said. "They feel that they're in the situation that they're in because they're Black and that's not, it's not true. You can overcome and you can rise to the occasion. But a lot of information that I'm getting from these students is that they feel like 'well, because I'm Black, I'm poor.'"
Roberts believes the governor is trying to rewrite history.
"I feel as though he thinks by removing this he will remove that conversation and in a way continue to baby and, I believe, rewrite history," she said. "It's creating harm, it's creating more disrespect, and it's just trying to abolish more history that we've already been holding onto dearly."
Thousands of people are expected to be at the protest according to Ben Frazier with the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville and an organizer with Florida Rising. The Reverend Al Sharpton is set to be a speaker.