Legislation to solidify St. Johns County as the site of a planned Florida Museum of Black History and codifying rules for its Board of Directors is now one vote from clearing the Legislature’s upper chamber.
The Senate Rules Committee voted unanimously to send the bill (SB 308) to the floor after hearing impassioned testimony from many who support the museum’s establishment, but worry that politics and a desire to avoid discomfort will compromise historical accuracy.
St. Augustine Republican Sen. Tom Leek, the measure’s sponsor, tried to assuage those concerns, noting that the museum’s Board and Subcommittees, not Tallahassee, will dictate exhibits and messaging.
“I don’t think the history of Florida can be told without also telling the history of Black Floridians,” he said. “What this does is give the opportunity for that history to be told and the story to be completed.”
SB 308 and its House twin (HB 525) by Jacksonville Republican Rep. Kiyan Michael would codify a prior recommendation by the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force to select St. Johns County as the preferred site for a future museum.
It would create a new section of Florida law establishing the Florida Museum of Black History Board of Directors tasked with overseeing the facility’s planning, construction and operation.
The Governor, Senate President and House Speaker would appoint Board members. Except for two Senators and two Representatives who would serve in ex officio capacities, members would not be able to hold any other elected office, whether voter-chosen or appointed.
St. Johns County was the top-ranked site among three finalists for the museum chosen in April 2024, followed by Eatonville in Orange County and Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County. Last June, the Legislature earmarked $1 million for the planned project in St. Johns.
Several members of the public cautiously celebrated the museum’s progress while pointing to recent state-level actions as potentially troubling signs of what it could look like under poor management and content.
Dr. Allison Clark pointed to a PBS report from January 2023 quoting Gov. Ron DeSantis as saying he supports teaching history, but warns against “indoctrination.”
“How effective and how reflective of history is this museum going to be?” she asked before pondering aloud whether the statue honoring Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune would have been installed at the U.S. Capitol for Florida under Florida’s current political climate.
Leek later said that had such an installation been blocked, he and other lawmakers would have pushed to change that until it was.
Kiara Nixon of Equal Ground said that who gets to tell the story of Black Floridians’ history matters and is of particular concern, considering questionable changes the state made a few years back in its African American curriculum, which included a requirement that students be taught how enslaved people learned skills they could use “for their personal benefit.”
“Honoring history requires more than reflection,” she said. “It requires us to tell the accurate story.”
Derek Triplett, founder and pastor of Hope Fellowship Church, echoed that sentiment.
“If we don’t ensure that Black historians and community persons who will tell the whole truth … are leading this process, then the truth gets twisted,” he said.
Tamarac Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood thanked Leek for sponsoring the measure, but also cited recent state actions — specifically Attorney General James Uthmeier’s decision to announce on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that he wouldn’t enforce dozens of race-based laws — as putting Black people “in a posture of feeling attacked.”
“We know that the state of Florida has no shortage of history museums, but what we like is balance. We have museums for military history, political history, regional history, but no state-level institution dedicated to Black history, despite Black Floridians shaping every chapter of this state’s history,” she said. “This bill … does not replace those museums, but it connects, elevates and complements Florida’s historical infrastructure, and in my opinion, I believe it completes it.”
SB 308 awaits scheduling for a Senate floor vote. HB 525, which has been assigned to three Committees, has yet to be heard in the House.