Controversial AP African American studies course stripped of ‘woke’ content after criticism from Florida’s DOE

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The College Board published the updated curriculum for its AP African American studies course on Wednesday, revealing that much of the content Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration criticized it for had been removed.

The course cut much of the content associated with Black Lives Matter, the queer experience and other controversial issues that prompted the Florida Department of Education (DOE) to reject it from being taught in Florida schools.

The DOE had originally stipulated that the course could be approved for Florida public high schools once The College Board cut out these "woke" aspects.

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The College Board decided to purge the woke content in its proposed AP African studies course after Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., criticized it. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The course is currently being tested in 60 schools around the U.S., and will be expanded to hundreds more in the next school year. All schools can begin offering the course in the 2024-2025 school year. The College Board, which oversees AP courses, consulted more than 200 historians and professors in developing the course. 

DeSantis supported the state DOE in rejecting the earlier proposed version of the course, leading many Democrat lawmakers, educators, and those in the mainstream media to accuse the governor of erasing Black history and whitewashing educationin the state.  

The governor responded to these accusations, insisting that The College Board’s original version of the course was "pushing an agenda."

The governor claimed, "This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda."

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"The College Board purged the names of many Black writers and scholars associated with critical race theory, the queer experience and Black feminism. It ushered out some politically fraught topics, like Black Lives Matter, from the formal curriculum," the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Topics like Black Lives Matter and "reparations debates" in America are included as "illustrative" sample project topics, along with "Black Conservatism," which was not included in the initial curriculum. 

The course is designed to be taught over 28 weeks, and includes topics such as early African kingdoms and city-states, the slave trade, the Civil Rights movement, and "Black Power and Black Pride." 

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addresses the crowd before publicly signing HB 7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "Stop WOKE Act' during a press conference at Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on Friday, April 22, 2022.? (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

David Coleman, head of the College Board, told the New York Times these changes were not made in response to political pressure. 

"At the College Board, we can’t look to statements of political leaders," he said. Instead Coleman insisted the changes were in response to "the input of professors" and "longstanding A.P. principals."