DeSantis should honor Florida civil rights leaders

Why hasn’t the DeSantis administration named anyone new to Florida’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame since 2019?

That was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ first year in office, that faraway time when he still seemed to care about governing the whole state, not just his own followers. Back then, the new governor — as required under Florida Statute 760.065 since 2010 — chose three people who had made significant contributions “in the struggle for equality and justice for all persons.”

They were all Black men and included Daniel Webster Perkins, one of Florida’s first African-American attorneys; Charles Ullman Smith, active in the civil rights movement, including the Tallahassee bus boycott of 1956, and Henry James Thomas, one of the original Freedom Riders in the civil rights movement. Worthy individuals whose accomplishments should be celebrated.

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But why no one since then? A group of North Florida religious leaders held a news conference last week at the Civil Rights Hall of Fame, near the entrance to the Capitol in Tallahassee, to ask that very question.

As Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes Jr., pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, noted in the Tallahassee Democrat, the governor has failed to choose the names of “men and women who bleed and die for diversity, equity and inclusion. So we want to ask him, ‘Why not?’ ”

The response they got afterward was perhaps the lamest excuse ever made in DeSantis’ Florida: COVID was the culprit.

The Commission on Human Relations, which is charged with recommending up to 10 people to the governor annually, wrote in an email reported by the Democrat that the commission couldn’t hold a ceremony because they had to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This is DeSantis’ “free state of Florida.” This is the place where we threw off the shackles of public health and safety in favor of going to restaurants and malls without masking. Prevent the spread of COVID? Since when?

But OK, say we believe them. How about a virtual ceremony instead? During the worst of the pandemic, there were weddings held on Zoom, cocktail hours online and business meetings conducted every day, virtually. To state the obvious, we could have held a Civil Rights Hall of Fame Ceremony online, too.

Unless, of course, the DeSantis administration didn’t see this honor as a priority, but saw it as a political liability instead.

Because how can you rail against diversity, equity and inclusion and even legislate against it — as the Florida Legislature has, under DeSantis — and then turn around and honor significant figures in the civil rights movement?

Awkward. Hypocritical. And — here’s the truly scary part for now-presidential candidate DeSantis — far too likely to be considered “woke,” at least in the eyes of the far-right Republicans he’s been so zealously courting.

The self-appointed top gun of Florida’s woke wars can’t be seen as backing down or weak, even a little. Not when he has repeatedly cast himself, embarrassingly and with enormous hubris, as God’s choice for a leader.

Once again, the administration of the state has been warped by his endless ambition, down to even the most non-controversial things, like picking names for an honor wall in the Capitol.

It wasn’t always that way. The Civil Rights Hall of Fame was created by a unanimous vote of both the House and Senate in 2010. Three more names should have been added to that wall every year that DeSantis has been governor. Honoring those who contributed to the struggle for equality and justice shouldn’t be a question.

But under this governor — and now presidential contender — apparently it is.