Former Alabama state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, speaking at a news conference in 2017.Former Alabama state Sen. Hank Sanders of Selma has written an open letter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about Florida public schools teaching that some African Americans who were slaves learned skills that benefited them later in life, calling the concept “sad and preposterous.”for social studies lessons that include: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves .
Sanders, who is Black, wrote that slaveholders, their families and their business associates were the only ones who benefited from slavery. “After all, history is forged so we can learn from it to build a better future,” Sanders wrote. “And changed history is false history. And false history results in false learning that allows us to repeat terrible wrongs like the slavery you are intentionally misinterpreting.”
“They developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery,” DeSantis said in In an interview on NBC. “It was them showing resourcefulness and using those skills.”