OCOEE, Fla. — It’s history often untold, and often unknown, but now, a new bill requires all Florida students to learn about it, and that new curriculum hits classrooms this upcoming school year.
“My ethnic background consists of African American and Native American,” said Amber Saunders, an Orange County mother of three. “A lot of the tribal and cultural people pass their history down through oral storytelling, through dancing.”
Saunders’ youngest is now starting the eighth grade.
Given her native culture’s deep reliance on and respect for history, she is excited about an addition to her daughter’s school district’s history curriculum, history she only knew little about.
“I have heard of the Ocoee Massacre. I heard about it in passing and didn’t really understand it and know the specifics of it,” Saunders said.
The Ocoee Massacre happened on November 2, 1920. Black landowner July Perry was lynched as an armed mob attacked Black neighborhoods, killing about 50 residents, burning homes and churches. Others were driven out of Ocoee, all because they wanted to vote.
It’s a tragedy all Floridians should know about, but don’t. But that’s about to change, thanks to Florida House Bill 1213, a bill that, in part, requires all Florida students learn about the Ocoee Massacre.
“I think it’s important our students know what happened, and this is something that happened to a group of people that lived in a city close to where you live,” said Rebecca Ray, the Orange County School System’s director of secondary curriculum instruction.
“So, House Bill 1213 really called on the education task force to consider ways and make recommendations for us to infuse the Ocoee Massacre into our already required African American history instruction,” Ray said.
The commissioner of education’s African American history task force released six recommendations to get it in classrooms statewide.
But what specifically will it look like? And when, specifically, will it hit classrooms?
WESH 2 News learned there are really no definitive answers, just yet.
“The one requirement is that it has to be taught starting this year,” said state Sen. Randolph Bracy, who sponsored the legislation. “I think the purpose was to give each school district the flexibility to figure out how they wanted to implement it.”
WESH 2 News reached out to all of the Central Florida school districts and learned they are aware of the legislation and are in the process of planning it out. Together, it’s a group effort that will most likely result in the curriculums looking very similar across counties, and whatever the final curriculum ends up being, OCPS says it will be age and grade-appropriate.
“In that K-5 realm, you are thinking communities, geography, how do we incorporate those aspects of what happened in Ocoee to their age band? In middle school, we cover voting rights, amendments, we cover political parties, we cover voting acts and things like that, so in that realm, we are thinking, how do we connect what happened that day?” Ray said.
In high school, it goes a little deeper.
“How do we move forward from the societal implications? What has played out since then and how do we make sure we are moving forward in a way where we are able to exist in a better place?” Ray said.
A big part of curriculum planning is professional development for teachers.
“We are realizing local Floridians don’t know that this occurred, so we have to bring that first to our teachers because, otherwise, they can’t successfully go into their classrooms to teach,” Ray said.
“When did you find out about the Ocoee Massacre?” WESH 2’s Summer Knowles asked Ray.
“I feel I didn’t really know about it until it came from House Bill 1213,” Ray said.
Whether the curriculum hits the mark and resonates with teachers, legislators, students and parents remains to be seen, but Bracy, Ray and Saunders are hopeful.
“Learning that we have come from people who developed a community that was thriving and overcome certain setbacks of that time, I think it shows advancement as to what we are teaching our children,” Saunders said.
Orange County says it is pushing to get this curriculum into classrooms prior to the 101st anniversary of the Ocoee Massacre, which is in November.
We will keep you posted on their progress.