While Gov. Ron DeSantis and the College Board fought over an Advanced Placement African American studies course and so-called “divisive concepts” like “critical race theory,” school districts across the country were already working on integrating Black Studies concepts across curriculums without walling off classes to select students or inflaming political controversies.
A new AP class was never going to be the best avenue to introduce Black history to high school students. Significant racial and ethnic disparities still persist in Advanced Placement classes—and the College Board’s standardized testing inherently advantages wealthier students, who attend higher-ranked schools with more AP offerings and are able to pay for expensive test prep resources. The Florida controversy also recalls a similar episode in 2015, when the College Board caved after nearly a year of tussles with conservative politicians and academics over its AP United States History framework. Among other changes, the revised framework de-emphasized British colonial confrontations with Native Americans and omitted direct references to “white racial superiority” and xenophobia in lessons on slavery and Manifest Destiny.
California has been a longtime leader in ethnic studies and Black history education. San Francisco State University established the country’s first College of Ethnic Studies in 1969 after Black Student Union leaders joined other student groups to demand course offerings that would reflect the histories and cultures of the state’s people of color. More than 50 years later, state lawmakers added a semester-long course in ethnic studies to high school graduation requirements beginning in the 2029-2030 school year.
Many educators view Black history as merely an add-on to conventional American history lessons that portray white people as central figures.
Last June, California’s reparations task force, the country’s first, released a nearly 500-page interim report that not only recommended an advanced timeline for ethnic studies classes in high schools, but also the creation of a K-12 Black Studies curriculum. One member of the task force told MarketWatch that these recommendations “directly counter this movement toward ignorance,” referring to Gov. DeSantis’s efforts to rid Florida public schools of all things “woke.”
In the fall of 2020, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which serves over 50,000 students, implemented a K-12 Black Studies framework and curriculum for the 2022-2023 academic year. Currently, SFUSD’s Ethnic Studies program funds a part-time teacher on special assignment to create Black Studies lessons, as well as an optional Black Studies unit for high school Ethnic Studies teachers. For the moment, the materials are only being used in high schools.
The Prospect explored the SFUSD program with two Black high school teachers who created Black Studies lessons for the district. Citing privacy and safety concerns, both educators requested anonymity. As native Californians, both teachers are well aware that their state is often heralded as a progressive haven, even though it is no freer from racism than any other area of the country. The first teacher shared the story of their grandfather, whose family sent him to California at a young age in 1938 out of fear he would be killed by whites in his native Texas. This teacher explained that while it is easy to point fingers at the South, it is equally important to acknowledge educational shortcomings in more liberal areas.
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“What’s happening in Florida is despicable,” they said. “Students should have access to Black studies on every level, kindergarten through a doctoral program. But what’s even more egregious is that everybody doesn’t have Black studies.”
The second teacher added that they operate from the premise that the contemporary American educational system structurally disadvantages students of color. “We were separated and given less resources,” they said. “And still to this day, if you compare the average school that has a majority-Black population with one that has a white student population, the resources are not the same.”
The teachers’ lessons borrow key ethnic studies themes such as anti-oppression and anti-imperialism (such as reframing the Westward Expansion as “eastern encroachment” of settlers on indigenous lands). They also strive to highlight issues facing local residents, matching students with local political groups and creating lessons on mutual aid projects such as community refrigerators, a grassroots social service that supplies free fresh perishables to food-insecure neighborhoods.
According to LaGarrett J. King, an associate professor of social studies education at the University at Buffalo, many educators view Black history as merely an add-on to conventional American history lessons that portray white people as central figures, while glossing over Black people’s experiences and contributions. “If you really teach Black history, the traditional narrative doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Because the perspectives are different and understanding the lived realities are totally different.”
In “Black History Is Not American History,” King detailed “Black historical consciousness” principles for educators to incorporate into their curriculums, such as Africa and the African Diaspora; Black agency, resistance, and perseverance; and Black identities. Collectively, these themes aim to “explore Black identity through complex and nuanced narratives that attempt to get at the full humanity of Black people.” “I like to tell people all the time, many times we teach about Black history, but we don’t teach through Black history,” said King. “By that I mean, using the narratives and perspectives of Black people to teach Black history.”
He noted that many teachers typically frame the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education, as a positive historical event that ended racial segregation in public schools and propelled the country in a progressive direction. However, this narrative implies that most Black schools at the time were academically inferior to white schools, and that Black students needed to attend white schools in order to receive a better education. African Americans, King added, believed that Black schools held them to high standards and were no worse than the white schools they integrated. In fact, Black students and their families often preferred their own schools because they experienced racism from their white teachers and peers in integrated settings. He argued that this discriminatory treatment contributes to the ongoing racial achievement gaps.
Beyond the Golden State, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine have all enacted legislation mandating Black history courses in public schools even as Republican states continue to resist comprehensive Black history instruction.
