Last month, Osceola County School District canceled a professor’s civil rights history seminar for teachers, citing in part concerns over “critical race theory†— even though his lecture had nothing to do with the topic. When I dug a little deeper, I found the history professor was  Dr. Michael Butler – who has been our go-to resource on the civil rights movement in our area.
“This is history, Rick,” said Butler, who teaches at Flagler College. “It’s not supposed to make us comfortable. That’s not the point of history. History is supposed to help us think critically, write clearly, make evidence-based arguments, and more importantly, understand how the past informs the present on issues that still matter, like race relations.”