Friends:
This is inspiring! What Florida’s public universities won’t teach, Marvin Dunn is bringing to life—one lesson at a time, under a tree. At Florida International University, students gather beneath what’s now called the Black History Learning Tree to hear the real story of the Rosewood Massacre—just one of many erased or distorted chapters in Florida’s past.
As state leaders censor curricula and dismantle DEI programs, the beloved Dr. Dunn, a retired professor and historian, is reclaiming public space to teach truths too uncomfortable for today’s politics. “DEI is not dead,” he declared. “We will be here again and again.” In a state where history is under siege, one tree has become a classroom of resistance.
I am so in awe of you, Dr. Dunn! Keep up the great work!
Sí se puede! Yes we can!
-Angela Valenzuela
‘Telling our history correctly’: Activist hosts Black history class under a tree at FIU
By Raisa Habersham Updated April 2, 2025 | Miami Herald
Former Florida International University professor and historian Marvin Dunn speaks to attendees about the Rosewood Massacre during a “Black History Learning Tree” event at FIU on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Miami, Fla. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
The Rosewood Massacre was just a short paragraph in one of Stephanie Borden’s textbooks when she was in grade school. “I did not get taught a lot of Black history from school,” the marine biology student at Florida International University, 27, told the Miami Herald. Slavery, Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves, Martin Luther King Jr. and his assassination, and Barack Obama’s presidency were the highlights of the Black history she learned in school.
“My learning of Black history came from my family,” she said.
Artist and student Leah Gayle, 34, hangs a sign that reads “WE LOVE D.E.I.” before a “Black History Learning Tree” event at Florida International University on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Miami, Fla. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
But on Tuesday, as she sat by the newly christened Black History Learning Tree on Florida International University’s campus, the little morsel of history she learned of the Rosewood Massacre morphed into a full fledged lesson from historian and former professor Marvin Dunn. On a March 17 Instagram post, Dunn announced he was going to host a free class to anyone who wanted to learn Black history under a tree by the Steven and Dorothea Green Library. And he did it without the permission of FIU officials, he said.
“It’s important now to stand up. It’s important now to resist this attack on our democracy,” Dunn said. “Most of my colleagues, if not all of them at FIU, are vulnerable. I don’t expect any of them to sit under that tree with me, and I don’t blame them. I’m sure there’ll be photographs taken of who is there and reports given to the new president about who is under that tree.” In February, former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez was appointed interim president of FIU. Her appointment was the latest in a wave of conservative, well-connected politicians taking over presidencies at state universities under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
RELATED: FIU’s new president in her own words: A Q&A with former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez
Dunn’s Black history lesson comes at a time when the state has limited how Black history is taught in school, a trend seen nationally as the Trump administration has signed executive orders to eliminate what they consider diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and threatening to withhold funding from schools that they find ideologically out of line. At the same time, FIU and the rest of the state’s universities have had to weed out general education courses that include “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
Former Florida International University professor and historian Marvin Dunn speaks to attendees about the Rosewood Massacre during a “Black History Learning Tree” event at FIU on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Miami, Fla. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
Dunn, who spent his academic career at FIU, chose the tree as a way of institutionalizing Black history on the campus and designating a place where Black history will be taught, he said. Dunn said Black people have often used trees as a gathering spot, when in Africa elders gathered to make decisions and pass on oral history. “I don’t know of a single Black community that does not have a tree where usually Black men gather to socialize, tell stories, play the dozen, get drunk sometimes, but mainly to pass on our history,” he said. “That’s the tradition from which I come and I’m hoping that other universities will establish Black History Learning Trees as well as a model of protecting our history on those campuses.”
Dunn’s voice fought against the din in the open plaza as he noted the importance of telling such history before the assembled class of about 30 people: “There’s a temptation to sometimes not recognize the depths of the problems of Black people. We have to make sure we’re telling our history correctly.” Today’s lesson dove into the story of the Rosewood Massacre, describing the burning of a predominantly Black Florida town after a white woman, Fannie Taylor, lied about a Black man beating her, which incited a violent white mob. Dunn owns five acres of land in Rosewood. One of his neighbors in the small gulf coast town launched a racially-motivated attack against Dunn and was convicted of hate crimes. Dunn famously forgave his attacker, asking for lenience at his federal trial. “I was raised in the church and my parents taught me to forgive, at least once,” he responded to a question asking why he forgave his neighbor. “That was the motivation for that, but I did catch some heat for it.” Dunn also recounted the lynching of Willie James Howard, a 15-year-old boy in Live Oak, Florida, who sent Christmas cards to all his co-workers, including a white girl named Cynthia Golf. Howard later sent her a letter, which her father found. Golf’s father and two other white men took the boy from his home, tied him up, drove him to the Suwannee River, gave him the choice between being shot or drowned. He would jump into the river as his father watched.
Ph.D. in International Relations Rob Piper, 53, reads a copy of ‘The 1619 Project’ by Nikole Hannah-Jones while waiting for speaker Marvin Dunn to speak to attendees about the Rosewood Massacre during a “Black History Learning Tree” event at FIU on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Miami, Fla. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
Onlookers passed by and listened in while Dunn continued a few more stories of Florida’s Black history, teaching about what constitutes a lynching and the history of Kingsley plantation. Students also received free copies of “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
This is the kind of history FIU student Abigail Costello, 19, said she’s afraid will be erased. She said she had noticed how certain terms were now being used incorrectly. For instance, she said that teachers in high school had started using the term “indentured servitude” instead of “slavery” when referring to American slavery. Indentured servitude involves a labor contract in which a person agrees to work for a set number of years with the promise of freedom. “There’s a lot that I didn’t learn from school that I’m excited to learn outside of school in this space,” she said. “It was just a lot of information to take in, and now I know I got to bring a notepad next time.”
Borden echoed those sentiments, saying that she feels that there has been a push to remove professors who teach certain subjects and efforts to inaccurately teach history. “Black history is American history,” Borden said. “It all goes together. I’m sorry if you feel bad, because your history might be a little tainted,” she said, “ but that is where we are as a nation.” Dunn said he plans to continue the Black history lessons weekly and has already lined up two guest speakers including Shanreka Perry, whose leg was amputated when she was 12 during the Miami riots in the 1980s. Dunn encouraged people to follow his social media for when the next lesson will take place.
“It was important to me to make a presence, to make a beginning statement on this campus that DEI is not dead, and we will be here again and again and again,” he said. “That’s not a one off.” Dunn plans to tell more stories in other parts of Miami-Dade as well. On Wednesday afternoon, he posted on Instagram about the Overtown Black History Learning Tree, located in the Teach the Truth Garden at 901 NW Third Avenue. A date was not announced. As for Borden, she will make it as often as she can. “I’ve learned so much and it [was] only an hour and a half,” Borden said. “Whatever I have to do, come hell or high water, I’m going to be back.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 3:28 PM.
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