GET ME REWRITE: The racist state history that Florida GOP wants to whitewash

Florida.   Racism.  Yet again.

Headline:  New York Times, 8/272023

Jacksonville, a city of nearly 1 million people, where about 30 percent of residents are Black, has a long history of racism. Sunday marked the 63rd anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday, when white supremacists severely beat a group of mostly Black civil rights activists. Mayor Donna Deegan and other local officials planned to attend a commemorative ceremony in the afternoon, before a vigil for the Dollar General shooting victims. 

Last year, on the morning of Sept. 11, a neo-Nazi group unfurled swastika flags and antisemitic banners on an Interstate 95 overpass. And earlier in 2022, homeowners in two neighborhoods found fliers with hate speech littering their driveways. 

Last October, an extremist group displayed antisemitic messages around Jacksonville, including at TIAA Bank Field ahead of a Florida-Georgia college football game. Other hateful messages appeared on an Interstate 10 overpass and along another highway.  

The Republican-held City Council has declined to remove a Confederate monument from a park, despite pleas from the mayor and a former mayor, who is a Republican, to do so.

And whose side is DeSantis on?