FL School Textbooks Edited To Omit Rosa Parks' Race: Reports

FLORIDA — A publisher of elementary school textbooks for Florida students removed all references to race from a lesson about civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who in 1955 refused to give up her seat on an Alabama and was subsequently arrested, according to a New York Times report.

Studies Weekly, a publisher that provides educational materials for grades kindergarten through sixth grade, created two versions of a lesson on Parks for review by a state commission tasked with annually approving school curriculum, the Times reported.

The initial version said Parks "was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin," while an updated version didn't mention race at all, according to materials provided to the Times.

The version prior to the textbook review read, "The law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down," the Times reported.

Studies Weekly made similar changes to a fourth-grade lesson about segregation laws following the Civil War, according to the Times.

In the initial version for review, the text refers to African Americans, explaining how they were affected by the laws. The second version eliminates nearly all direct mentions of race, saying it was illegal for "men of certain groups" to be unemployed and that "certain groups of people" couldn't serve on a jury.

In a statement provided to CNN, a spokesperson for Studies Weekly said "individuals in our curriculum team severely overreacted in their interpretation of HB 7 and made unapproved revisions."

"We find the omission or altering of historical facts to be abhorrent and do not defend it," the statement continued. "Those unapproved changes have already been removed from our curriculum."

The Florida Department of Education called Studies Weekly's edits an "overreach" in response to Senate Bill 148, or House Bill 7, often called the Stop WOKE Act.

The bill, signed into law last year, bans any teachings in school or the workplace that promote the belief that "members of one race, color, sex, or national origin are morally superior to members of another race, color, sex or national origin."

The law also bars instruction that says members of one race are inherently racist or should feel guilt for past actions committed by others of the same race, among other things.

Studies Weekly's curriculum is no longer under consideration by the state, the Times reported.