Controversy Sparks As The Number Of High Schools Offering More AP African American Studies Courses Is Going Up

A new AP course called “AP African American Studies” will be available in high schools across the United States. The class promises to dive into the history of Black people in America while studying Black pride, Black Power, and Black feminism – all of which have put conservative whites on edge for fear that critical race theory (CRT) will be taught at estimated sixty high schools offering the new curriculum.

Beginning this fall, a new rigorous AP course will be available to high school students. The program, which is still in the test phase, was given the green light by the College Board. There is no syllabus for the course yet. The names of the schools that will offer this cutting-edge class have not been revealed.

Marlon Williams-Clark, an educator at the Florida State University Schools (right), has announced that he will be instructing AP African American studies to pupils this fall. Williams-Clark is a history teacher at the Florida State University Schools.

Professor Williams-Clark, 35, told the New York Times about his aspirations for the new course. He said AP African American studies would give high school kids a chance to learn more about African American history and offer a realistic and honest perspective on slavery as well as 20th and 21st-century Black activism.

Meanwhile, Republican educational leaders are concerned that AP African American studies might contribute to the country’s already-raging culture war over critical race theory.

One Republican board of education member in Williamson County, Tennessee, is John Welch. He feels that the new curriculum, which emphasizes African American history, should be examined by Republican officials to ensure there isn’t any political bias.

“It would bother me as a school board member to have any course material that was agenda-driven,” he stated. He continued, “We’re trying to educate, not indoctrinate.”

Williams-Clark, who does an excellent job teaching sixth through eighth-grade students in Florida, believes the course will be highly educational. Some of what his students will learn about include real history of the early African kingdoms, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the abolitionist movement, as well as twentieth-century Black activism. He Florida’s anti-CRT law that was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April 2022 Insists that the course does not break.

“I think people need to understand that critical race theory is not an element of this course,” Williams-Clark said. “As far as the 1619 Project, this course is not that either. There might be elements that cross over. But this course is a comprehensive, mainstream course about the African American experience.”

African American history is intricate with the development of America as a whole. Since the beginning, white colonists relied on black slaves to constructVOIDthe country and establish”ices economies in North and South America through exporting tobacco and cotton.

Next year, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) plans to expand the program with a national rollout of AP African-American studies for the 2024-2025 academic year.