COLLEGE BOARD FIELDS CRITICISM ON NEW AP AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY COURSE

Christiana Lilly

Aligning with the first day of Black History Month, the College Board shared the coursework for its new AP African American History class on Feb. 1, which will include queer Black history.

The College Board says that the course was created with the help of more than 300 professors of African American studies from more than 200 colleges across the country, as well as high school teachers.

In a statement from the nonprofit organization, CEO David Coleman said, “No one is excluded from this course: the Black artists and inventors whose achievements have come to light; the Black women and men, including gay Americans, who played pivotal roles in the civil rights movement; and people of faith from all backgrounds who contributed to the antislavery and civil rights causes. Everyone is seen.”

The course was completed in December 2022.

Those on the left then criticized the course after the New York Times reported that the College Board edited the coursework after the comments from Florida’s leaders. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the move “bullshit” in a tweet and called the College Board’s CEO a “puppet of Ron DeSantis.”

In response, the College Board put out a statement, calling the article a “gross misrepresentation” of the course. They included pages from the course material covering Black feminism and the Black LGBT experience, which The Times said were removed. It did not address claims that the Black Lives Matter movement and critical race theory were purged from the course.