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A former North Carolina teacher claims he was fired in February after parents complained about him teaching the book "Dear Martin." A Charlotte, North Carolina, teacher is suing the charter school he used to work at after he claims he was fired after parents allegedly complained about him teaching a fictional book involving a racially profiled Black teen. Markayle Gray, a former English teach er at Charlotte Secondary School, claims in a civil lawsuit that was filed on Wednesday that he was terminated from his position as a 7th and 8th-grade teach er on Feb. 2 following backlash from parents over his teach ing of the 2017 young adult novel "Dear Martin." The 2017 New York Times bestselling novel by Nic Stone follows the story of a Black teenager who was thrown to the ground and handcuffed during an encounter with police. The Ivy League-bound teen writes 10 imaginary letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. imagining what the civil rights leader would have done in his p...

After Florida rolled out a controversial updated curriculum regarding Black history lessons, many residents raised their voices over how slavery was being downplayed. After Florida's governor and education department rolled out a controversial updated curriculum regarding Black history lessons, many students, parents, educators and elected officials raised their voices over how slavery was being presented. The new curriculum included instruction for middle school students that "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, can be applied for their personal benefit." "That's mean," Marvin Dunn, a professor at Florida International University, told ABC News. "That's mean to say that to Black people that there was some advantage, some positive benefit to being enslaved. They weren't even considered to be persons. So how could they have personal benefits?" Marvin Dunn of the Miami Center for Racial Justice leads a rally against Florida...

Educators who spoke with ABC News described conditions that stretched beyond the pandemic in which Black male teachers were under-appreciated and outstretched Educator Marvin Burton Jr. is a self-described renaissance man. "You have to be that type of teacher now," Burton Jr. told ABC News, adding, "It's never a dull moment. I don't know of a teacher that's not tired when they leave from just the daily work -- the daily grind." The advanced, professionally-certified vocal music instructor has taught everything from special education to English language arts over the past three school years because he said a nationwide teacher shortage has forced him in different directions. Burton Jr. said he's "totally exhausted" most evenings when leaving Drew-Freeman Middle School in Suitland, Maryland, driving to pick up his three sons in Temple Hills before commuting another half an hour home to Brandywine. This is not unusual for pandemic-era teach...