Daryl Jones, board chairman of the Transformative Justice Coalition, says the best way to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday is to advocate for the rights of others. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on June 19, 2023 at 9:56 pm
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On Juneteenth, the celebration of Black people being belatedly notified of their rights, scores of people rallied against new Florida laws in Jacksonville, the beginning of a statewide Freedom Ride bus tour by a national civil rights organization.
The Transformative Justice Coalition, founded by human rights lawyer and advocate Barbara Arnwine, wants to spread the word that the Florida Legislature has been restricting voter registration, reproductive rights and access to information — all in an effort to get more voters of color engaged in the political process.
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The five-day, 15-city “rolling protest” started in Jacksonville’s Springfield neighborhood, steps away from a road called Confederate Street.
Kitty Carson, a Westside Jacksonville resident, is one of the more than two dozen people participating in this week’s tour. She wants to use her voice to support Florida’s LGBTQ community, which she says faces “erasure” through legislation.
“Sharing knowledge leads to enlightenment,” Carson says. “When you are enlightened and when you know better, you do better.”
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Daryl Jones, the Transformative Justice Coalition board chairman, said the best way to celebrate Juneteenth is to advocate for the rights of others.
The coalition has visited more than 200 communities nationwide — including a stop in Jacksonville last October — with the goal of spurring communities to engage in local and state policy decisions.
“We know legislation that is positive for the community happens when we have elected officials that support positive, inclusive legislation,” Jones says.
As Jones spoke, state Rep. Angie Nixon, D- Jacksonville, stood 20 feet away. Behind him were more than two dozen people – including Jacksonville City Council member Tyrona Clark-Murray – who held signs as well as books that have been challenged in Florida school districts this year.
Clark-Murray believes legislation that has been signed into law by Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis is designed to create a less informed populace “under the guise of freedom.”
In 2022, DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education law (HB 1557), the law that critics have labeled “Don’t Say Gay.”
That law forbade classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity up through grade 3 or in a way that’s not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for older students. Then this year, the Florida Board of Education expanded the blanket prohibition through 12th grade.
This spring, DeSantis signed an elections bill (SB 7050) that allows, among other things, local supervisors of elections to remove registered voters from the rolls if they fail to respond to certain notices within a timely manner.
The protesters are also against HB 1467, a 2022 law that mandates, among other things, that “the parent of a public school student or a resident of the county” must be able to formally contest instructional materials. Certified media specialists, the term used for school librarians, are also now the only staff who can approve reading materials, leading the Duval school district to tell teachers to cover or store their classroom libraries this school year.
In the first academic year after HB 1467 was enacted, children’s books about Roberto Clemente and Henry Aaron took months to be approved by Duval County Public Schools. Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” was restricted in Miami-Dade County, and a book about Ruby Bridges was challenged by a parent at a Pinellas County elementary school.
“On this Juneteenth, it’s not just about celebrating. It’s about making change,” said Devan Vilfrard, a recent Florida A&M graduate who is speaking out against another new law (HB 999), which prohibits colleges and universities from using public dollars on diversity, equity and inclusion programming.
“How do we do that? By voting, by speaking out, by passing out banned books, by becoming the people we need to vote for. …Because in this state of Florida, we have the leaders that we don’t need. And that’s a non-partisan comment because we have them on all sides,” he said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by a historic margin in 2022, and the Republican supermajority in the Florida Legislature saw a mandate to enact conservative policies at a brisk clip.
In Duval County — which went from under 50% support for DeSantis in 2018 to heavily in his favor last year — Black voter turnout rate has been below the overall turnout rate in each of the last three elections. Despite Jones’ best efforts last year, only 40.1% of Duval’s registered Black voters participated in November — the lowest in a gubernatorial election since 2006 and far below the 50.5% overall turnout.
In this March’s municipal elections, only 22% of Black voters participated, compared to 25.7% countywide. And only 29.1% of Black voters participated in May’s local run-offs, compared to the countywide 33.1%.
“Knowledge is power and knowledge applied is powerful,” says L.J. Holloway, a former Democratic congressional candidate who lost her 2022 race by more than 20 percentage points. “People in marginalized communities pay more and lose more because they don’t find out information until it’s too late.”
Lead image: Daryl Jones, board chairman of the Transformative Justice Coalition, speaks at the rally in Jacksonville on Monday. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
