Reflections on Teaching AP African American Studies: Year #1

I just finished my first year teaching the AP African American Studies pilot course. This course is fantastic! African American studies should be required for every student in the country.  This is not a radical idea, it is rooted in reason and practicality because, as historian Dr. Leonard Moore states, “we are never going to achieve racial healing or reconciliation without proper undertaking of the Black struggle and White Americans have been allowed to avoid learning Black history for far too long.”

There is certainly a lot of outside noise surrounding the AP African American Studies course, from the absurd decision from Florida to ban the class outright to critiques on the left about not including every source each scholar finds to be essential. However,  ask any teacher involved in pilot year 1 or 2, you hear the same report over and over again: this class is empowering and beautiful. I don’t know if I have ever been so proud as when my own students described their experiences at a  Michigan Board of Education meeting this spring. One of my senior leaders said this to the room of educational decision-makers in our state: 

‘When you finally learn your history, you are truly liberated…this encapsulates how I truly feel about taking the AP African American Studies class.”

Again and again, not only my students, but students across the country are describing that this course is empowering them to see themselves as stakeholders in their community. We were the only school on our side of the state to offer the course this year leading to several media requests. My students were more than willing to describe their experiences. My students described that they went home and discussed lessons from this class with parents and relatives in a way that they hadn’t since elementary school.  One of my favorite quotes came after a reporter asked one of my students about the controversy surrounding this class. “Skip the haters…it a fun experience and actually makes you want to learn more about your culture.” My students also suggested that it should be a required course along with U.S. and World History. 

Antiracist APUSH Support of New AP African American Studies Teachers

All new teachers of AP subjects are hungry for resources, and since this course is new, there are not nearly as many resources in comparison to AP US History and AP World History for example.  I plan to share my lessons for free on antiracistapush.com and will continue to upload my most effective lessons from the past year. The first lessons I plan to share are from Unit 1 on early African Civilizations

More Resource Ideas

The College Board is also very supportive of teachers of this course. The course is structured around required sources that were selected leaders in the field of African American studies. This takes all the guesswork out of selecting the right sources for class lessons. The Essential Knowledge standards are also much more explicit than the AP US or World History standards. This provides teachers with the course objectives that they need to do the job effectively.  During the pilot, there was no AP African American AP Classroom but I look forward to what we will find there this upcoming year. I also suggest that you join the AP African American Studies Teacher Facebook page.  

History education is an essential component of the formation of a more just society. AP African American Studies truly empowers students. Our society needs it and our students deserve it.