{"id":418777,"date":"2026-10-04T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418777\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T23:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:12:09","slug":"rashon-young-to-the-state-leave-let-us-alone-off-floridas-new-driver-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418777\/","title":{"rendered":"RaShon Young to the state: Leave ‘Let Us Alone’ off Florida’s new driver license"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Rep. RaShon Young says Florida should not have put \u201cLet Us Alone\u201d on its new driver licenses. The Florida Senate objected to the phrase in 1845, and the flag that carried it never became official.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Democrat called the redesigned license and ID card \u201ctone-deaf\u201d in a statement and asked the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to reconsider the phrase and consult historians and representatives of Florida\u2019s diverse communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords do not exist outside of history,\u201d Young said. \u201cFor enslaved people, demands for government noninterference meant leaving intact a system that denied their humanity and exploited their labor. Placing this phrase on credentials Black Floridians must carry is a slap in the face to communities whose ancestors endured that injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

FLHSMV began issuing the new cards Wednesday<\/a>, a day after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the redesign at a Cabinet meeting. The front puts Castillo de San Marcos behind the cardholder\u2019s information, an orange in the \u201cO\u201d of \u201cFlorida,\u201d a manatee in the lower left corner, and an alligator inside the REAL ID star at the upper right. The back carries Space Shuttle Discovery and the motto.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s announcement<\/a> describes \u201cLet Us Alone\u201d as a motto from Florida\u2019s first unofficial state flag, presented to Gov. William D. Moseley at his inauguration. It does not say why the phrase was chosen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as a slave state. Its 1838 Constitution<\/a> declared that \u201cthe General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves.\u201d Moseley, a Jefferson County planter, was sworn in as the state\u2019s first Governor that June, and the flag bearing \u201cLet Us Alone\u201d was unfurled at his inauguration. The Legislature never formally adopted it<\/a>. The Senate objected to the motto, according to the Florida Historical Society.<\/p>\n

The phrase resurfaced in Tallahassee in December 2021, when DeSantis proposed reviving the Florida State Guard. The unit\u2019s logo at that announcement showed an alligator with its jaws open and the words \u201cLet us alone,\u201d Florida Phoenix\u2019s Michael Moline reported<\/a> at the time, and then-Press Secretary Christina Pushaw traced it to the 1845 flag.<\/p>\n

Young tied the credential to the country\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot celebrate \u2018We the People\u2019 while overlooking the people denied its protection,\u201d Young said. \u201cFlorida proclaims its greatness, but greatness requires the courage to acknowledge our history and the judgment to avoid romanticizing its darkest chapters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young won House District 40<\/a> in a September 2025 Special Election after serving as Chief of Staff to LaVon Bracy Davis, who moved to the Senate the same night. The two filed legislation<\/a> ahead of the 2026 Session to compensate the families of the Groveland Four.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Young also urged Floridians to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why representation matters. This is why voting matters,\u201d Young said. \u201cSomeone at the table should have asked what this phrase would mean to the people required to carry it. Make your voice heard. Show up. Vote. Our history deserves honesty, and our future deserves better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floridians with a valid license or ID card can keep it until it expires.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Rep. RaShon Young says Florida should not have put \u201cLet Us Alone\u201d on its new driver licenses.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-418777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418777","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=418777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}