The First AP African American Studies Class Will Be Taught in High School This Fall

The course will not only cover issues relevant to Black history, but also touch upon civil rights, politics, literature, the arts, and geography.

Starting this fall, the College Board will be offering a new Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American studies in 60 high schools across the United States.

The course will not only cover issues relevant to Black history, but also touch upon civil rights, politics, literature, the arts, and geography. It’s the first course of its kind that will allow high school students who take it to receive college credit.

The College Board has yet to release a sample syllabus or specify which 60 high schools were selected to offer the course, but a Florida teacher named Marlon Williams-Clark, who has knowledge of the pilot program, told the New York Times it will touch upon everything from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, to the Harlem Renaissance, to Black power, to Black feminism and intersectionality.

The news of a high school-level AP African American studies class is groundbreaking given the fact that, this year alone, 36 states have introduced at least 137 bills that would ban or limit critical race theory or other curricula about race and gender within schools, according to Pen America.