Friend,

Book bans. Censorship. Whitewashed history.

This is the future of education in the Deep South — or, at least, the future that lawmakers and far-right anti-student inclusion groups want. Florida has enacted education legislation and policies seeking to control K–12 public education through limits on teaching the truth about hard American history like slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, book bans, and strict rules for how LGBTQ+ students can identify and exist at school. And, Florida is just the blueprint. Unfortunately, states across the South and the nation are following suit.

There is nothing more important to our collective future than inclusive, honest education for all. The SPLC is using the courts to counter repulsive attacks on education in Florida and across the Deep South — and we need your help now. Friend, please make a special contribution today to help us fund our work through 2025.

Schools have become the latest battleground for far-right groups like Moms for Liberty, which is seeking to exclude the voices of LGBTQ+ and non-white people from society. So, we sued.

We filed suit against the Cobb County School District on behalf of Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade gifted specialist who was fired from her teaching job in 2023 for reading My Shadow is Purple, an age-appropriate picture book about self-acceptance and navigating gender stereotypes, to her class.

And, we sued to end Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 and restricts such discussions for students through grade 12 based on undefined standards of appropriateness. It also gives any parent the legal power to sue districts they believe are violating its terms.

Florida has positioned itself as a model state for the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-student inclusion movement and has doubled down on a long history of whitewashing public education. We’re determined to stop that movement at the source, and we can’t risk running out of time. Friend, please make a special gift to the SPLC today to ensure our lawyers and advocates can keep challenging these policies before they sweep the Deep South.

Sincerely,

The Southern Poverty Law Center