ORLANDO, Fla. — The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity has announced it will relocate its convention that was scheduled to take place in 2025 due to new laws signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The fraternity's general president made the announcement on Wednesday and said DeSantis has created "harmful, racist, and insensitive policies against the Black community."
“Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has an unmatched legacy of social justice, advocacy, and leadership for the Black community,” General President Dr. Willis Lonzer said in a statement. “In this environment of manufactured division and attacks on the Black community, Alpha Phi Alpha refuses to direct a projected $4.6 million convention economic impact to a place hostile to the communities we serve.
"Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis.”
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity also said the recent relocation of the convention comes after the State Board of Education approved new academic standards for instruction about African American history last week.
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. pushed back on assertions by groups such as the Florida Education Association teachers union and the NAACP Florida State Conference that the standards “omit or rewrite key historical facts about the Black experience” and ignore state law about required instruction.
Diaz defended the standards while commending a workgroup involved in developing the curriculum and the Department of Education’s African American History Task Force.
The new standards are designed to guide lessons from kindergarten through high school.
For example, the kindergarten standards focus on teaching students about important historical figures.
One part of the high-school standards directs students to describe “the contributions of Africans to society, science, poetry, politics, oratory, literature, music, dance, Christianity and exploration in the United States from 1776-1865.”
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, pointed to part of the middle-school standards that would require instruction to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“I am very concerned by these standards, especially … the notion that enslaved people benefited from being enslaved. It’s inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our educational curriculum,” Eskamani said.
Rep. Rita Harris, D-Orlando, pointed to the same part of the standards and called it “such an insult.”
Alpha Phi Alpha has not yet said where it will host its 2025 convention.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.