Black History

College Board Waters Down AP Black History Course after Conservative, Anti-“Woke” Attacks

“To wake up on the first day of Black History Month to news of white men in positions of privilege horse trading essential and inextricably linked parts of Black History, which is American history, is infuriating,” said David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. “The lives, contributions, and stories of Black trans, queer, and non-binary/non-conforming people matter and should not be diminished or erased.”

Published

3 years ago

February 15, 2023

Oakland Post

The national College Board has altered its curriculum on Advanced Placement African American courses to eliminate removed topics including the Black Lives Matter movement, reparations, and Black queer and feminist theory. iStock image.

By Brandon Patterson

The guidelines for Advance Placement African American studies classes were revised this week after the College Board made several changes to the curriculum, coinciding with recent criticism from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other conservatives. The College Board is the education nonprofit that writes the curriculum for advanced placement high school courses.

DeSantis announced last week that Florida would not allow the AP African American studies course to be taught in Florida high schools because the curriculum violated the recently passed Stop W.O.K.E. Act banning instruction on certain concepts related to race.

In the revised curriculum, released Feb. 1, the College Board removed topics including the Black Lives Matter movement, reparations and Black queer and feminist theory, according to CNN. They are instead included in a list of research topics that schools can recommend to students for year-end projects. Works by Angela Davis, Kimberly Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality,” and bell hooks were also removed, CNN reported. The recommended research topics list now includes a suggestion on Black conservatism.

In a written statement announcing the revised curriculum, the College Board said the revisions had been in the works for months, implying they were not made in response to recent rightwing criticism. But the timing of the announcement has left many skeptical of that assertion.

“To wake up on the first day of Black History Month to news of white men in positions of privilege horse trading essential and inextricably linked parts of Black History, which is American history, is infuriating,” said Dr. David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. “The lives, contributions, and stories of Black trans, queer, and non-binary/non-conforming people matter and should not be diminished or erased.”

In its statement, the College Board said that no “states or districts have seen the official framework that is released, much less provided feedback on it,” and that the course was “shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices.”

The AP African American Studies course is taught in four sections: origins of the African diaspora; freedom, enslavement, and resistance; the practice of freedom; and movements and debates, according to NBC News. The course is currently being piloted in 60 schools around the country, and the formal framework is aimed at guiding the course’s expansion to other high school next school year, NBC reported. The College Board said it worked with professors from upwards of 200 colleges, including several HBCUs, to shape the new curriculum.

Governor DeSantis said his administration is now reviewing the new changes to the curriculum.

David Blight, a professor of African American history at Yale, spoke to NBC regarding the course revisions. “I am now disappointed to learn that a major section on the end of this curriculum was removed from an earlier version,” Blight said. “It took a lot of people to create this half-century tradition of African American studies and students in every state…No legislature, governor, or school board has the right to simply cancel it and stand in the way.”