{"id":151023,"date":"2026-02-11T02:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151023\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:09:09","slug":"banning-black-from-black-history-month-flyer-was-a-mistake-famu-says-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151023\/","title":{"rendered":"Banning Black from Black History Month flyer was a mistake, FAMU says \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida A&M University says banning the word Black from a law student\u2019s Black History Month flyer was a mistake, the result of an \u201coverly cautious interpretation\u201d of a Florida law that\u00a0prohibits DEI initiatives in higher education.<\/p>\n

A student at FAMU\u2019s College of Law, located in Orlando, said last week that the Black Law Students Association was told it could not use the word Black in a flyer for upcoming events. The issue at the historically Black college was first reported by News 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Law student Aaliyah Steward told the Orlando Sentinel in an email that the dean told a group of students the administration was given a list of \u201c37 words\u201d that students could not use. She said the president of one of the student organizations told her Black was among those words.<\/p>\n

At the time, Steward said in her email, she worried the school was restricting \u201cour speech because they are afraid that they will lose state funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Cecil Howard, the associate provost and interim dean of the law school, on Monday issued a message to students, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, that said the word was not restricted and that the university\u2019s leadership had not issued the directive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat occurred was a staff-level error\u2014an overly cautious interpretation that went beyond what the law requires,\u201d Howard said in her message. \u201cIt has been corrected, and I take full responsibility for ensuring it does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard also said the university consulted\u00a0a higher education law expert to make sure the word Black could be used and does not violate state law.<\/p>\n

A state law passed in 2023 bans diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Florida\u2019s 40 public colleges universities, prohibits the spending of public money on DEI activities, and bars initiatives that \u201cpromote or engage in political or social activism.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAMU President Marva Johnson said in a statement on Monday\u00a0that the word Black is central to the university\u2019s identity as the state\u2019s sole public historically Black university.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University unequivocally confirms that the use of the word \u2018Black,\u2019 or the phrase \u2018Black History Month,\u2019 does not violate the letter, spirit, or intent of Florida Senate Bill 266, Board of Governors Regulation 9.016, or any relevant federal guidance,\u201d Johnson\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

The review process for student organizations\u2019 promotional materials will be changed in response to the error, Howard told students in the message. The university will work to develop a review mechanism that will \u201censure greater clarity and consistency\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPending full implementation of this process, I will assume sole and final review and approval authority for all communications and event-related materials,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida A&M University says banning the word Black from a law student\u2019s Black History Month flyer was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[113,28,114,266,115,109,232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-151023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-social","14":"tag-tallahassee","15":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","16":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}