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(WASHINGTON) — The national NAACP Board of Directors has issued a formal advisory against traveling to Florida, alleging the state has become “hostile toward African Americans” under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The move by the NAACP board calling on travelers nationwide to forgo visiting Florida comes as AAA Travel estimates 42.3 million Americans plan to hit the road this coming Memorial Day weekend.

The board voted unanimously to issue the travel advisory, saying the decision “comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”

“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” the advisory states.

Derrick Johnson, the NAACP president and CEO, accused DeSantis and other state leaders of a “dereliction of duty” and called the trend of failing to teach an “accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face” a disservice to Florida students.

“Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon,” Johnson said in a statement. “He should know that democracy will prevail because its defenders are prepared to stand up and fight. We’re not backing down, and we encourage our allies to join us in the battle for the soul of our nation.”

The travel advisory was initially proposed in March by the NAACP’s Florida State Conference. At the time, DeSantis called the proposal “a pure stunt.”

“We get involved in these stupid fights,” DeSantis said in March. “This is a stunt to try and do that.”

Following the vote by the national NAACP Board of Directors on Saturday, Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, issued a statement repeating the governor’s previous comment, saying, “This is a stunt.”

The NAACP’s travel advisory follows similar ones issued by the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Latino civil rights group, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group.

Florida’s economy heavily relies on tourism. An estimated 137.6 million people visited the state in 2022, the most ever, according to VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation. In 2021, tourism pumped $101.9 billion into the state’s economy, according to VISIT FLORIDA.

DeSantis, who won a second term as governor in November, is expected as early as this week to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his candidacy for president in 2024, which would formally enter him in the race for the White House, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.

The governor and his administration recently rejected an AP African American studies course because it is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” according to state officials. The DeSantis administration has also vowed to remove funding from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, as well as certain lessons on race.

DeSantis also signed the so-called “Stop WOKE” Act into law in 2022, which restricts race-related curriculum and conversation in workplaces, schools and colleges. However, an appeals court has temporarily blocked the law from being implemented in colleges and universities.

Following DeSantis’ drive for the state to reject students’ access to AP African American studies courses in March, the NAACP distributed 10,000 books to 25 predominantly Black communities across the state in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers’ Reading Opens the World program. The majority of the books donated were titles banned under state laws.

“Once again, hate-inspired state leaders have chosen to put politics over people. Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida have engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion and rejected our shared identities to appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority,” Leon Russell, chair of the national NAACP Board of Directors, said in a statement.

Russell added, “We will not allow our rights and history to be held hostage for political grandstanding. The NAACP proudly fights against the malicious attacks in Florida, against Black Americans. I encourage my fellow Floridians to join in this fight to protect ourselves and our democracy.”

ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — When Roland Conner was a teenager in the 1990s, he was imprisoned on a marijuana-related charge.

Conner told ABC News that he struggled with the stigma of that criminal record for a long time, but recently his past has helped him and his family in a major way. In January, Conner opened Smacked! Village in Manhattan and became the first Black-owned legal cannabis store in New York City.

“It was surreal because a lot of the time you try to hide your past, especially when it’s negative,” he told ABC News Live.

Conner’s story is one that New York officials, cannabis reform and criminal justice reform activists said can be replicated across the country to help the generations of Black Americans whose lives were marked by previous marijuana laws.

“We’ve been talking about the opportunity to take what was a tool of systemic racism in some ways being implemented in communities like New York and use it now as a tool for reparative and restorative justice and further opportunity for those communities,” Dasheeda Dawson, the founding director of Cannabis NYC, the city office that oversees legal cannabis businesses, told ABC News.

Last spring, a year after New York State legalized recreational marijuana, New York City Mayor Eric Adams created the Cannabis Equity Program. The program helps New Yorkers who were negatively affected by the state’s previous drug laws obtain a Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries license, or a “CAURD.”

At least 30% of the applicants applying for the license must have had a “justice-involved” history related to a previous marijuana arrest and shown entrepreneurial experience, according to state rules.

Dawson noted that the “justice-involved” criteria include applicants who had family members who were arrested on previous marijuana-related charges.

“CAURD is really intended to focus on those who have been directly impacted,” she said.

Conner, who operates Smash! with his family, said his store has helped him grow closer with his son.

“This means something to a lot of men who look like me and those who don’t even look like me,” he said. “Because a lot of times we lose our kids…They [are] like balloons, they get caught in the wind and they’re gone.”

Dawson said customers buy cannabis products for recreational purposes and to treat health issues such as chronic pain.

Arana Hankin-Biggers, the president and co-founder of the cannabis dispensary Union Square Travel Agency, partnered with the nonprofit agency the DOE Fund, which works to help formerly incarcerated New Yorkers learn new skills and get back on their feet, for her CAURD application.

Hankin-Biggers told ABC News that it was just to set up this partnership, where half of the proceeds from the store go to the DOE Fund’s projects.

“There are still over 40,000 in prison, primarily Black men on cannabis charges,” she told ABC News. “There are instances and stories of individuals who had a dime bag and who were arrested and sent to jail for seven years.”

Twenty-two states have legalized recreational marijuana and 13 of those states have implemented social equity programs. Dawson said other states purposely excluded entrepreneurs with previous drug-related records.

“By virtue of the fact that we are prioritizing that group, we are setting a standard not just in the United States, but globally. And that’s where I think New York can really be a pioneer,” she said.

Conner said he was grateful for the opportunity to come back from his past and to help others in the community.

“I made a lot of mistakes now, you know, but being able to correct those mistakes and move forward and be here right now and know the inadequacies is not there… I’m strong,” he said. “I feel powerful.”

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(FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga.) — A woman accused of putting her newborn in a plastic bag and abandoning her in the Georgia woods nearly four years ago has been denied bond after prosecutors argued she could intimidate potential witnesses in the “Baby India” case.

Karima Jiwani, 40, made her first court appearance Saturday morning after being arrested this week, appearing virtually from the Forsyth County Jail.

The baby girl, known as India, was found alive in good condition in a wooded area in Forsyth County on the night of June 6, 2019, authorities said. A local family told “Good Morning America” at the time they had heard crying and called 911 after finding the newborn in a plastic bag.

Jiwani faces charges including criminal attempt to commit murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated assault and reckless abandonment. She faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

Penny Penn, district attorney for the Bell-Forsyth Judicial Circuit, told the court that prosecutors have DNA evidence proving that Jiwani is the biological mother of the child, as well as corroborative evidence including the defendant’s own interview statements in the case.

Penn said evidence will show the baby was “dumped’ on the side of the road approximately 12 to 30 hours after India was born and that there was “no indication that this child was left for anyone else to find.”

“By the defendant’s own statement during the interview, this was a child that she tried to kill,” Penn said. “That was certainly her intent.”

Penn asked that Jiwani be held without bond, saying that the defendant’s husband and children are potential witnesses in the case and that the prosecution is “concerned about the risk of intimidation” if she were to return home.

Defense attorney E. Jay Abt said Jiwani is a stay-at-home mother with three minor children and noted she has no criminal history while arguing for $100,000 bond along with a house arrest and GPS ankle monitor.

“This woman suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis,” Abt told the court. “There are extensive medical records to demonstrate that and ultimately expert testimony to prove that.”

Penn countered that postpartum depression was unlikely to be a factor and that “there is no evidence to suggest that the defendant was suffering from any kind of psychosis.”

Chief Magistrate Keisha Martin Chambless said she did have concerns about the risk of Jiwami fleeing and intimidating witnesses while denying bond at this time.

When the judge asked Jiwani if she had any questions, her defense attorney advised her not to say anything.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for June 13.

Jiwani, of Forsyth County, was arrested on Thursday following a nearly four-year investigation that saw the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office release body camera footage of the baby’s recovery as they attempted to identify her.

Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman told reporters in a press briefing announcing the arrest on Friday that investigators were able to identify the child’s father through “advanced DNA investigative practice” about 10 months ago. Further DNA evidence confirmed Jiwani to be the child’s biological mother, according to Freeman.

There is currently no evidence to suggest that the child’s father knew of the pregnancy or abandonment, the sheriff said.

Based on interviews with family and medical professionals, Jiwani reportedly had a “history of hidden and concealed pregnancies and surprise births,” and while pregnant with India “went to extremes to conceal this pregnancy,” Freeman said. Investigators have not found any prior criminal acts regarding Jiwani, he said.

Freeman said he would not discuss India besides saying she’s “happy and healthy.”

ABC News’ Jianna Cousin contributed to this report.

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(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Two construction workers were killed in a massive fire at a Charlotte construction site Thursday, which fire officials said was accidental.

Reginald Johnson, the fire chief for the Charlotte Fire Department, told reporters Friday that the bodies of the two construction workers who were unaccounted for in the five-alarm blaze on Liberty Row Drive were discovered in the wreckage earlier in the morning.

Their identities weren’t publicly released.

The family of one of the victims, Demonte Sherrill, 30, told ABC affiliate WSOC that he was one of the deceased men.

Demonte Sherrill’s parents said he was a good man who worked hard to provide for his four children.

“He got that job, and he was doing real good at it, so I was very, very proud of him,” Sherrill’s father, Terry Campbell, told WSOC.

Over 90 firefighters responded to the residential construction site on Liberty Road around 9 a.m. and within 10 minutes, the blaze grew to five alarms, told reporters Thursday.

“It was a very fast-moving fire [with] high heat conditions well over 2000 degrees. And as a construction site is open, a lot of wood is exposed the fire moved very rapidly,” Johnson said.

Firefighters rescued 15 construction workers from the fire, including one person who was stuck on top of a crane. Johnson said that firefighters had to set up hose lines to protect the crane before they could go and make the rescue.

Johnson also confirmed that two “maydays” were issued after firefighters had issues getting out of the fire while rescuing some of the construction workers.

Johnson told reporters Friday that the fire department’s investigation determined the blaze began accidentally and started in a spray insulation foam trailer on the ground floor.

“We seldom have large fires of this magnitude,” he said.

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Louisville police caught a convicted felon who they say escaped police custody on Thursday and then briefly kidnapped two people, forcing them to drive him away.

“He was in the area of Brownsboro and Lindsey. Close to the Thorntons where we get our doughnuts. #BigMistake,” Louisville police said in a Facebook post Saturday announcing his capture.

A Kentucky deputy jailer was transporting Norman Wolfe, 31, when he kicked out the back window of an unmarked police vehicle and jumped onto Interstate 265 on Thursday, according to police.

Once he escaped the vehicle, Wolfe began running across several lanes of traffic on I-265, wearing orange clothing, according to police.

Upon further investigation, police said that the inmate allegedly kidnapped two victims and forced them to drive him to River Road and Edith Avenue shortly after his escape.

Both victims were found unharmed, according to police.

Area businesses and schools had been advised to take precautions on Friday as the search continued.

“LMPD’s Investigation into this incident is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the anonymous Crime Tip Hotline at 502-574-LMPD (5673) or utilize the online Crime Tip portal at LMPD Crime Tip Portal,” Louisville police said in a statement.

Prior to his escape, Wolfe was facing new charges of first- and third-degree burglary; fleeing and evading police; and a convicted felon in possession of a handgun.

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(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Krieg Butler, a 36-year-old white man who shot and killed 13-year-old Sinzae Reed, in Columbus, Ohio, in October was indicted by a grand jury Friday on charges of tampering with evidence and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.

No charges were brought against Butler directly related to the fatal shooting of the Black teenager.

The indictment comes after the office of Franklin County Prosecutor G. Gary Tyack presented evidence surrounding the death of the teen to a Franklin County grand jury on May 17 and 18. Multiple witnesses testified under oath.

Reed’s family says it is planning a protest on Saturday with local activists at the Ohio Statehouse. His mother, Megan Reed, shared a statement with ABC News on Friday through Columbus community activist Dejuan Sharp after the indictment was announced.

“The family, although disappointed with the grand jury decision, we will not be deterred from getting justice on a federal level,” Megan Reed said in the statement. “We believe our local government is grasping at the lowest hanging fruit. Partly because of [Ohio governor] Mike DeWine’s rush to implement stand your ground legislation without giving our courts and police, proper legal guidance.”

DeWine signed a “Stand Your Ground” bill in January of 2021, which removed the requirement for someone to retreat before self-defense.

Attempts by ABC News to reach Butler for comment were unsuccessful and it is unclear if he has retained an attorney.

According to a police affidavit, a witness to the shooting saw Butler shoot and kill Reed during an encounter outside of an apartment complex on Oct. 12, 2022. The witness said Butler exited his truck, fired shots at Reed and drove off, according to the complaint.

Butler was arrested days after the shooting and charged with murder, but those charges were dropped at the time pending completion of the investigation after prosecutors said Butler claimed self-defense in the shooting during his arraignment in October, according to a statement from the Columbus Police Department. Police told ABC News they have completed their investigation.

Court documents obtained by ABC News show no record that Reed had a weapon during the encounter with Butler.

According to a Franklin County autopsy report released on Jan. 17, the teen was shot twice, once in the hand and once in the chest, concluding the manner of death was a homicide.

The Franklin County prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Friday that they would not comment further as Butler’s case will be actively prosecuted.

Megan Reed told ABC News’ Linsey Davis in an interview on ABC News Live in January that she is seeking justice for her son.

“I need justice for my son. My son’s no longer here,” she said. “I’m going to continue this war, and I will be his voice until he gets justice.”

She added, “I’m very frustrated because I know if it was the other way around…if it was a Black man and my child was white, the Black man would be in jail and my son would have justice.”

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(LAFAYETTE, Ind.) — A shooting in Indiana that injured two people after a three-year-old accessed a gun led to the arrest of a man wanted for murder in Illinois, authorities said.

Trayshaun Smith, 23, was arrested on Thursday after he visited a hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to Lt. Justin Hartman of the Lafayette Police Department.

Investigators eventually determined that the shooting that sent Smith and another victim to the hospital occurred when a three-year-old was able to access a gun and fire a single round.

“It was determined that a three year old child at that location accessed a gun and fired one round striking two people,” according to Hartman.

The police department said officers initially found both shooting victims at the Franciscan Health Lafayette East Hospital, where they were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. They later determined that the shooting occurred at an apartment complex in Lafayette, Indiana.

Smith was arrested on an active murder warrant from neighboring Cook County, Illinois. The Lafayette Police Department said it is coordinating with police in Markham, Illinois, regarding the arrest.

Smith resides in Lafayette, according to authorities.

A representative for the Markham Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrest.

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