BATON ROUGE, La. — (AP) — Compared to her other classes, high school senior Kahlila Bandele said a lesson this week that spanned topics from Afro-Caribbean migration to jazz offered a welcome change in perspective.
Discussion in his Advanced Placement course on African American studies touched on figures from Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X to Jimi Hendrix and Rihanna. In her AP European History course, she said, “we’re not talking about blacks at all,” even though they were colonized by Europeans.
Baton Rouge Magnet High School in Louisiana is one of 60 schools across the country testing the new course, which has gained national attention since it was banned in Florida. The rejection by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis has sparked a new political debate about how schools teach about race.
On Wednesday, the College Board, which oversees AP classes, released curriculum materials for expansion of the course to hundreds of additional high schools in the coming academic year. College Board officials said the developers consulted with faculty at more than 200 universities, including several historically black institutions.
Baton Rouge students were aware of the political controversy over the course. But Monday’s class was filled with discussions about the Négritude and Negrismo movements celebrating black culture and a painting by Afro-Asian-Latino artist Wifredo Lam.
Later, Bandele, 18, said he does not understand the arguments that the course will indoctrinate children.
“I don’t feel particularly indoctrinated,” she said.
DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said he was barring course in Florida because he pushes a political agenda.
“In the state of Florida, our educational standards not only do not prevent, but require that black history be taught, all the important stuff. That’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis said at a news conference last week. “We want education and not indoctrination.”
In a written statement Wednesday, College Board Executive Director David Coleman said the course is “an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African-American history and culture.”
“No one is excluded from this course: black artists and inventors whose achievements have come to light; black women and men, including gay Americans, who played pivotal roles in the civil rights movements; and people of faith from all backgrounds who contributed to anti-slavery and civil rights causes. Everyone looks,” he said.
Many students were interested in the course at the Baton Rouge high school, Emmitt Glynn is teaching it to two classes, instead of just the one he was originally planning.
Earlier this week, your students read selections from Frantz Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth,” which deals with the violence inherent in colonial societies. In a lively discussion, students related the text to what they had learned about the conflict between settlers and Native Americans, the war in the Ukraine, and police violence in Memphis, Tennessee.
“We’ve been running the gamut from the shores of Africa to where we are now in the 1930s, and we’ll continue throughout history,” Glynn said. He said he was proud to see the connections his students were making between the past and the present.
For 17-year-old Malina Ouyang, taking the class helped fill in the gaps in what she had been taught. “By taking this class,” she said, “I realized how much isn’t said in other classes.”
Matthew Evans, 16, said the class has educated him on a multitude of perspectives on black history. He said the political controversy is just “a distraction.”
“Any time you want to try to hush something up, you’re just going to make someone want to learn even more about it,” he said.
The College Board offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including math, science, social studies, foreign languages, and fine arts. The courses are optional. Taught at the college level, students who score high enough on the final exam usually earn course credit at their college.
The African American Studies course is divided into four units: African Diaspora Origins; freedom, slavery and resistance; The liberty practice; and movements and debates.
In Malcolm Reed’s classroom at St. Amant High School in Louisiana, where he teaches AP class, he tries to be aware of how the material and discussions can affect students.
“I give them the information and I have seen the light bulbs go out. I ask them: ‘How does it affect you? How do you feel about learning this?’ ” he said. “It’s new to me too, and I’m taking it easy. We’re not just learning history, we’re making history.”
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Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. AP writer Stephen Smith contributed to this report.
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