Rosa Parks was Black. There is no dispute about that. But at least one publisher is afraid the Ron DeSantis administration may reject its materials; so they went to great lengths to avoid mentioning her race.

According to the New York Times, the publisher, Studies Weekly, focuses on science and social studies with short lessons in weekly pamphlets. Its social studies materials are used in Florida elementary schools.

The NYT compared several versions of the publisher’s lessons.

Here are the versions from their story:

In the current lesson on Rosa Parks, segregation is clearly explained: “The law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down.”

But in the initial version created for the textbook review, race is mentioned indirectly.

“She was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin,” the lesson said.

It’s mandatory in Florida to teach Black history, but the legislature also passed a law last year, the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which prohibits instruction that would compel students to feel responsibility, guilt or anguish for what other members of their race did in the past, a ban on critical race theory among other restrictions. 

The two mandates appear to be at odds with each other.

The NYT wrote that the Florida Department of Education suggested that Studies Weekly had overreached.

Any publisher that “avoids the topic of race when teaching the Civil Rights movement, slavery, segregation, etc. would not be adhering to Florida law,” the department said in a statement.

But the publisher told the NYT it was trying to follow Florida’s standards, including the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.

“All publishers are expected to design a curriculum that aligns with” those requirements, John McCurdy, the company’s chief executive, said in an email to the NYT.