Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's Wednesday, the first day of February and of Black History Month. I'm Nyla Boudou.

Today on the show, Florida's fight over African-American history and why educators across the country are rethinking their approach to race.

Teaching Black History. That's our one big thing.

Florida last month rejected an advanced placement African-American studies class for its schools, a course that some high schools nationwide have been piloting.

Florida Governor Rhonda Santis says the course violates the quote stop woke act, which he signed into law late last year.

It aims to restrict how educators handle topics like racism, slavery, and the nation's history of anti-Black violence.

Educators and historians have come out against the law and drove, saying it infringes on their ability to do their jobs.

Part of the law has already been blocked by a judge and other lawsuits are in progress.

Marvin Dunne is a former college professor, public school principal, author and founder of Teach the Truth Tours, aimed at discussing what happens when we restrict how educators teach history.

He's also a plaintiff and one of the lawsuits over the new law. As Black History Month begins, we're digging into this fight and into the history of Florida in particular.

Professor Dunne, welcome to Axios today. Thanks for being with us.

Thank you for having me as an educator first. Can you give us some examples of what the stop woke act practically means for Florida teachers and how can actually change what's being allowed in the classroom.

You can talk about slavery, but you must discuss it objectively. I don't know how to objectively describe in a slave woman having a baby ripped from her bosom and sold into slavery.

I am a product of Miami-Dade County public schools. I didn't get a complete education about Florida's history. For example, I never learned about the Rosewood massacre where the town of Rosewood was burned to the ground and its black residents terrorized by deadly violence for days in the 1920s.

I learned about that as an adult. So you founded these Teach the Truth Tours, which take people all over Florida to learn about the history of specific sites. What motivated you to do that?

These tours are for high school students with a parent or a grandparent. All expenses paid by us and we go to places in Florida where the blood was shed. We go to places where people died at the hands of white mobs.

And it's important in my view to take the kids and the parents at grandparents because the stories get passed down at the Thanksgiving table around the Christmas tree. These are very, very difficult tours and they should be.

So we wanted to create an experience that they would never forget. And when you take someone to Rosewood and you walk that ground, you'll never forget that.

Is this meant to be an alternative to public education then in Florida?

This is an alternative to public education in Florida. I can't imagine particularly under this government school districts taking high school kids to places where these terrible things happen.

Right now in Florida, the movement is away from teaching the history. So away from taking people to these places.

So I fear that these stories will be lost. I fear that Rosewood will be lost. There's only one building standing in Rosewood today, the JW Wright House, the white man's home who protected some of the blacks at that time. That house is in danger.

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