AP African American Studies was outlawed in Florida. The College Board then requested an explanation and bided their time. and held out. The College Board formally asked the Florida Department of Education to provide a written explanation of how the pilot course broke state law three times, starting in September 2022. Every time, it was promised that feedback would be provided. It didn’t.
This silence is at the heart of a conflict that has spread far beyond a curriculum dispute in one state. The AP African American Studies course was rejected by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Department of Education in January, citing it as “inexplicably contrary to Florida law” and lacking “educational value.” This decision sparked a series of events that forced an examination of who has the authority to determine what students learn about race, history, and America in general.
In an open letter, the College Board—a nonprofit organization that manages Advanced Placement courses taken by high school students nationwide—finally offered a public response. The tone was pointed but measured. According to officials, the Florida DOE labeled some course topics as “historically fictional” in a February letter, but it didn’t say which ones or why. That has an almost surreal quality. To put it mildly, this is not how educational oversight is supposed to operate when a government agency accuses an academic program of historical fiction without providing a single example.
The DeSantis administration has extensive power to influence classroom instruction thanks to Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act, which prohibits specific racial content in workplaces and schools. The law’s proponents contend that certain lessons incite students to hate their nation or one another. Naturally, critics have a different perspective, viewing it as a way to subtly remove important discussions about race, oppression, and resistance from public education. Students in classrooms like Emmitt Glynn’s at Baton Rouge Magnet High School in Louisiana, where so many students signed up for the course that Glynn ended up teaching two sections instead of one, are caught in the middle of the arguments between the two camps.
It is not indoctrination to see his students relate Frantz Fanon’s writings on colonial violence to events in Ukraine, the struggle between Native Americans and colonizers, or police brutality in Memphis. It appears much more like education fulfilling its intended purpose.
There were some modifications made to the official AP framework when it was released on February 1st in honor of Black History Month. Subjects like Black Lives Matter, Black queer studies, and intersectionality were shifted from the core exam to lists of optional projects. This was not a concession to Florida, according to the College Board. That might be the case. Given the timeline, it’s also possible that maintaining distinction is more difficult than officials would like to acknowledge. At the very least, the optics are complex.
Malina Ouyang, 17, found the class to be illuminating in a way she hadn’t anticipated. She said she became aware of how much had just never been discussed in previous classes. The 16-year-old Matthew Evans referred to the political controversy as a distraction and made the kind of argument that usually outlasts any news cycle: when you try to silence something, you make people want to learn more about it.
It’s difficult to avoid seeing irony in that. AP African American Studies may have received more national attention as a result of Florida’s rejection than any curriculum rollout could have. In the 2023–2024 academic year, the course will now be offered in hundreds more schools. The discussion continued, regardless of Florida’s intentions. The volume increased.
