Mainstream media outlets ABC, CNN and MSNBC reported on a new monument to Emmett Till while tying it to Florida’s new African American history standards, Ron DeSantis and even Country star Jason Aldean.
On Tuesday, President Biden signed a proclamation to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi on what would have been the murdered teen's 82nd birthday. The monument will honor the 14-year-old lynching victim and his mother, whose decision to have an open casket helped spark the Civil Rights movement.
As the announcement was made, reporters were quick to juxtapose the monument to the Tills with leftist criticism of Florida's slavery curriculum.
"Now, the president's announcement — the president, who is roughly the same age that Till would have been — it comes as we are seeing this controversial and very polarizing debate in this country over the teaching of Black history. That move by the Florida Board of Education to teach some slaves may have benefited from the skills they developed is sparking a firestorm. But, Robin, this White House says monuments like this to Till will help teach the complete story of our nation's history," ABC White House correspondent Mary Bruce reported on "Good Morning America."
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MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell similarly commented, "This is also happening as some states are being accused of chipping away at the teaching of Black history, the accurate teaching. Ron DeSantis has been accused by the Washington Post editorial board, just yesterday, of trying to quote ‘whitewash slavery.’"
Citing "the distortion of Black history in some state curricula," Mitchell asked "how important" it is "to remember the legacy of what happened in our country as recently as the 1950s and '60s and arguably in some cases still happening today."
Mitchell also worked in the racism and pro-lynching claims against Aldean's popular hit and music video. "And the second-biggest song in the country right now is ‘Try That In a Small Town’ sung by Jason Aldean whose music video was filmed outside a Tennessee courthouse where a black teenager was lynched 1927 and a race riot took place in 1946," she added.
The production company for Aldean's music video, TackleBox, defended the use of Maury County Courthouse and said it is a "popular filming location outside of Nashville," naming several other music videos and movies that have been filmed there. In its statement, the company said, "Any alternative narrative suggesting the music video’s location decision is false," and noted that Aldean did not pick the location.
CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz also brought up Florida's slavery guidelines in the context of honoring Till.
"But this all comes at an important time when you've really seen the White House and the president trying to become more vocal in this debate over how these painful moments in U.S. history are taught to students in schools," she said. "Of course, you have Vice President Kamala Harris travel down to Florida just last week to talk about the guidelines that have been in place regarding slavery, but in just a short while, the president will be trying to honor Emmett Till and his family trying to ensure that these moments are not erased from American history."
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Black academic Dr. William Allen, who helped craft the Florida curriculum, criticized efforts by Harris to attack the standards based on a single line.
"The only criticism I’ve encountered so far is a single one that was articulated by the vice president and which was an error," Allen said. "As I stated in my response to the vice president, it was categorically false."
Both Harris and Biden alluded to Florida’s Black history standards during the White House event for the Tills.
"Those who attempt to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery," Harris said. "Those who insult us in an attempt to gaslight us. Who try to divide us with unnecessary debates. Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget."
Biden stated, "At a time when there are those who seek to ban books, bury history, we're making it clear – crystal, crystal clear – how darkness and denialism can hide much, but they erase nothing. You can hide, but they erased nothing. We can't just choose to learn what we want to know. We have to learn what we should know. We should know about our country. We should know everything. The good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation."
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Meanwhile, MSNBC political analyst and chief White House correspondent for The New York Times Peter Baker seemingly applauded efforts by the White House to link the issues.
"Ron DeSantis is under fire, obviously, for that lesson plan that the State Board of Education approved in which it suggested some people who had been enslaved got valuable skills from it, as if it was a jobs program. Obviously that sparked quite a furor nationwide and he’s doubled down on that rather than pulling back or trying to, you know, change that and so I think you are seeing this come at a moment of profound debate and President Biden’s going to wade into that," he said.
"We heard yesterday Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, engage on that from the White House podium, that this is not simply about Emmett Till, it's about today as well as about history and I think you'll hear him talk about that and about the need to confront the reality of the past rather than to put a smokescreen up and pretend it was something other than what it was," Baker said.
