Washington
DailyExpertNews
—
In the early 2000s, when I was a student at Ridge View High School, in Columbia, South Carolina, I loved analyzing the legacies of certain historical figures: WEB Du Bois, in AP US History; Malcolm X, in AP English Language and Composition.
At the same time, I wanted more. Too often, advanced placement curricula seemed to focus on just a handful of black heavyweights and, as a result, ignored the myriad of ways black Americans have shaped American society. Rarely were black students like me reflected in the classes. (I remember hearing from my mom about “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry’s gem in a play about a black family in south Chicago, and I wondered: Why don’t we study this in school?)
But things are starting to change. Ridge View is one of approximately 60 high schools across the country testing AP African American Studies in 2022. The interdisciplinary course will be the latest addition to the College Board’s arsenal of AP offerings and will delve into the history of the African continent and black contributions to music, literature, science, politics, and mathematics, among others. Just weeks into the pilot course, Ridge View AP students and educators see African American Studies as a kind of salve. The course comes at a time when race education is under siege: there are many educational gag orders, and “critical race theory” has become a lightning rod for the right.
Given the meager representation I observed as a high school student, I was stunned — and excited — to learn that Ridge View, who is predominantly black, leads AP African American Studies. It would have been so welcomeI thought, to see myself in this context, to explore questions of identity and inheritance.
Plus, it’s no small feat to test the track in South Carolina, where the Confederate battle flag was only banned from the state building grounds in 2015, in the heartbreaking aftermath of a white supremacist massacre.
The significance of the moment is not lost on Ridge View students.
“It makes me really happy to be in this class — to know that I’m a part of history,” Nacala McDaniels, a senior, told DailyExpertNews.
In August, Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor, one of the architects of the AP African American Studies curriculum, emphasized the educational value of the course.
“Nothing is more dramatic than having the College Board launch an AP course in a field — that means ultimate acceptance and ultimate academic legitimacy,” he told Time magazine. “It’s a mainstream, vetted, academic approach to a vibrant field, half a century old in the American academy, and of course much older, in historically black colleges and universities.”
Like so many in the Ridge View community, McDaniels wants AP African American Studies not only to help other black students, but all students to become well-versed in undertold histories and cultures and spark meaningful discussions about race.
“I hope the course will be offered to other people who are like me and to other people who just want to learn about history that has been covered up and history that has been ignored,” she said. “And I hope the course makes room for more conversation. Many people are afraid to talk about race, but with more conversation comes more understanding. ”
High schools had been hungry for an AP African American Studies course for years. But when the Executive Board asked universities about ten years ago if they would give credit for an associated exam, they said no.
But the 2020 riots brought about a long-awaited shift.
“The events surrounding George Floyd and the increased awareness and focus on inequality and unfairness and brutality aimed at African Americans made me wonder, ‘Would colleges be more receptive to an AP course in this discipline than they were 10 years ago?’” Trevor said. Packer, head of the College Board’s AP program, told Time.
Yeswas the answer.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about teaching AP African American Studies is the fact that teachers can talk about people, subjects, and pieces of history that students don’t know much about, according to Daniel Soderstrom, who leads the course at Ridge View.
“Over the decades, we as a society have done a better job teaching black history and African American studies. But I would say that many teachers are still falling short,” he told DailyExpertNews. “What I mean is that our children hear the same stories every year. And that doesn’t diminish the contributions of Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. But if those are the only people our students learn about in school, they’re missing out on a lot of what’s really there.”
The first part of the course examines early African kingdoms and some of their fundamental figures, including Queen Nzinga of Ndongo, located in present-day Angola.
“She was a very strong woman – a heroine – and fought on the front lines with her soldiers,” Soderstrom said of Nzinga, celebrated for curbing Portuguese colonization and the trade of enslaved people in Central Africa in the 16th and 17th century. “But we tend to skip the stories of people from Africa.”
So far, the lessons seem to resonate with the kids.
“I didn’t even know there were ever queens in Africa. Like, not at all,” Ashton Walker, a junior, told DailyExpertNews. “We need to learn more about Queen Nzinga and Idia. They are both very interesting because they were powerful female leaders who did great things for their kingdoms.”
Walker, who is white, sees AP African American Studies as a means of making her black peers visible, participating in their histories.
“It’s important that we as a society learn all these things. We never really get to hear about these numbers or what they’ve been through,” she said. “And my (black) classmates deserve to hear this history. It’s great that Ridge View is a predominantly black school and can help create this course.”
Her mother, Nicole Walker, who was involved in bringing the pilot course to Ridge View and is the director of the Scholars Academy Magnet for Business and Law (she was also my 9th grade English teacher), echoed some of these sentiments.
“We know it’s best for kids to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, celebrate their culture, and feel valued,” she told DailyExpertNews. “We know that a child who feels safe and valued will do better in school.”
Jacynth Tucker, a senior, is very familiar with the power of inclusivity. She said she and other black students felt invisible at a previous school.
“I can’t even remember a time when we really explored Africa – talked about the history and the culture,” she told DailyExpertNews. “Being in a class where that’s more of a focus is very special to me.”
Furthermore, the course gives black Americans more dimension, according to Clementine Jordan, a senior.
“One activity I really enjoyed was when our teacher showed us a collage and asked, ‘What do all these people have in common?'” she told DailyExpertNews. “Their commonality was that they are all black. But the point of that discussion was that, yes, they’re all black, but there’s so much diversity within the black community, within my community: different religions, gender expressions, sexuality, that sort of thing.”
Crucially, Soderstrom noted that AP African American Studies is not a standard history course, although it proceeds in a relatively chronological fashion and will eventually make its way to the US.
“We study black excellence and African American success through art, literature, culture, dance, math, science and law,” he said. “It’s interesting that one day we look at a work of art, the next day we listen to music, the next day we read a poem, and the next day we listen to a mathematician speak.”
In other words, as the course charts the struggle — including the mid-century civil rights movement — it also underscores the excellence of blacks across disciplines.
It’s virtually impossible to separate the debut of the AP African American Studies pilot course from the Republican-led racial panic looming in many schools.
According to an August analysis by PEN America, a literary and free-speech organization, lawmakers in 36 states passed 137 laws this year that address discussions about race, American history, and gender in primary, secondary and higher education. make ties. This figure is an increase of 250% compared to 2021.
And last month, the American Library Association predicted that the number of attempts this year to censor books at high schools, universities and public libraries that struggle with race, gender and sexuality will exceed the 2021 record high. The ALA counted 681 attempts between January 1 and August 31; the total for 2021 was 729.
These attacks try to determine what content is and what is not legitimate in an academic context; they are part of a much broader counter-mobilization against attempts to overthrow racial and social hierarchies.
“We don’t see different political conflicts. We see one big political conflict – one big reactionary political project,” Thomas Zimmer, a visiting professor at Georgetown University, where his research focuses on the history of democracy and its discontent, told DailyExpertNews in July.
But Soderstrom didn’t mince words: AP African American Studies is an essential course, regardless of one’s political affiliation.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is one of the seniors when we talk about American studies and African American history. He was recently quoted explaining that the course is not political,” Soderstrom said. “We provide factual information and everything is verifiable.”
Lylou, a sophomore, shared this belief.
“I’m white and I wanted to take this class because I don’t know much about black history,” she told DailyExpertNews. “The course must be part of the curriculum. Because why would we want to ignore this history?”
(Lylou’s mother asked not to mention her daughter’s last name, given the intense political climate surrounding race lessons in the US.)
The pilot course is expected to expand to additional high schools next year and then be available to all interested schools the following year, according to the College Board.
Ridge View kids, in turn, seem eager to see how the rest of the year unfolds.
“The classroom is a learning moment for everyone. I view every interaction I have with anyone as a learning experience,” McDaniels said.
Reflecting the same basic curiosity I had as a high school student nearly twenty years ago, she added, “I’m just excited to see what’s next.”