Duval County shuts down congressman’s false claims that Rosa Parks book ‘banned’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (FLV) – Duval County Public Schools shut down U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s, D-Mass., false claims after he said they banned a book from their school library.

McGovern claimed Duval County Schools banned “The Life of Rosa Parks” from their school library, when in reality the district said the book was never purchased in the first place. 

McGovern said on Twitter that U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is “lying” after he said books were not banned in Duval County, such as “the book in question about Rosa Parks.”

The school district replied to the Tweet and said the book was “never purchased by the district.”

Duval county schools said there are “dozens of books about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and other icons of the Civil Rights movement.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis commented on McGovern’s claims about the school district banning the Rosa Parks book during a press conference Monday.

DeSantis said if there was something “really problematic,” critics would “point to that legislation,” but “they don’t do that.”

“You know, you’re on the right track when they can’t argue against you on the substance [….] They don’t do what actually is being done, they try to concoct phony narratives,” DeSantis said.

“You actually had somebody in congress claim that Duval County Schools does not allow books about Rosa Parks, and he pointed to a book and he said, I searched for that they did not have this book,” DeSantis explained.

DeSantis pointed to Duval County school’s response to the claim.

“The school system actually responded on social media and said, well, we have 14 other books about Rosa Parks, we just didn’t have that one, because you have to make choices about what you do,” DeSantis said.

“They were trying to do a narrative that somehow that would not be appropriate in Florida schools, which is absurd.”

Florida recently passed legislation related to the selection of school library books and instructional materials.

The legislation requires all school librarians and media specialists to be trained annually in order to assist them with selecting books that comply with state law requirements.

In accordance with the recently passed legislation, the Duval County School District has trained certified media specialists who select books being made available to students through the school library, classroom libraries and recommended or assigned grade-level reading lists.

A viral video showed a Duval County school with empty bookshelves following the new Florida law.

The video led to a frenzy of people believing the state was mass-banning books, even though the DeSantis administration said it was attempting to protect students from pornographic books.