The Florida arm of the NAACP wants its national board to issue a travel advisory for the state, urging Black people to avoid visiting or moving to the state of Florida in response to a slew of proposals put forth by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that they say target Black history education and other diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout the Sunshine State.
“All of this is a tipping point,” Yvette Lewis, the NAACP Hillsborough County Branch president, told Yahoo News. “We encouraged more people to vote and that didn’t work because [extremist Republicans] gained more power and this is where we’re at. We had to take a strong stand because it has gone too far.”
Lewis, who leads the largest chapter in the state, presented the idea of an advisory to the NAACP Florida State Conference late last month after feeling as though all other options had been exhausted, and the group voted unanimously in favor of it. The recommendation will be reviewed by the national board of the NAACP when it reconvenes next month.