By Vanessa Chen and Isabelle Emmanuel, Staff Reporters

In August, the College Board announced a new AP course: African American Studies. This addition came with no shortage of controversy. It has faced backlash from conservatives for its inclusion of contemporary topics like the Black Lives Matter Movement, critical race theory, queer life and incarceration. 

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, a prospective Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, threatened to ban the course in the state after viewing its early curriculum, claiming historical inaccuracy and violation of a Florida law that controls how educators teach race-related issues.

On Feb. 1, the College Board released a revised course curriculum that focused more on fact-based teachings than theoretical analysis. While the College Board kept topics of Africa, slavery, reconstruction, the civil rights movement, redlining, discrimination, Afrofuturism — a view of the future through the Black perspective — and other aspects of African American history and achievements were kept in the curriculum, it removed many of the contemporary topics, including reparations and Black feminism, from the AP exam. 

Many have voiced their disapproval of the backlash and curriculum change reactions, including senior Jaela Eaton, who took Conestoga’s own African American Studies course last semester.

“Black history is American history whether people accept that fact or not,” Eaton said. “It’s just disheartening to know that there is a generation of students that is not getting the full extent of an education simply because of one individual’s beliefs.”

The College Board has outlined plans for the course with further piloting in the 2023-24 school year and the first AP tests for pilot students occurring in May 2024. AP African American Studies will become available to all schools during the 2024-25 school year. At Conestoga, the potential addition of the AP course could attract more students to the class.

“I would have (taken AP African American Studies),” Eaton said. “Not only would it have been interesting to see what topics were discussed, but it also would’ve given me another AP credit in a class that I actually enjoyed.”

Vanessa Chen can be reached at [email protected].

Isabelle Emmanuel can be reached at [email protected].