amna: The school year is coming
to a close and with it, the
first year of advanced placement
African American studies, an
interdisciplinary class by the
college board that has attracted
praise by professors and also
fierce opposition from some
Republican politicians.
Laura is back with a look inside
one school, where she spoke with
educators, students and experts.
Laura: At bishop o'dowd high
school in Oakland, California,
students file into Tony green's
classroom -- papered with
imagery of civil rights, and the
black power movement.
This is advanced placement
African American studies -- a
new pilot course.
Tony: The reason for this
migration -- so the furthest
back to your right.
That's a map of all the
lynchings that had taken place
in the south.
Laura: It's a curriculum that
drew national media attention
win, 3000 miles away in Florida,
Republican governor Ron Desantis
called it indoctrination and
banned it from Florida schools.
Gov. Desantis: That is somebody
pushing an agenda on our kids.
Laura: But in Oakland juniors
, and seniors enrolled in the
class don't see it that way.
>> I feel like it's very
important as a person to know
where your people came from and
what they went through.
And that isn't something that I
found has been centered very
much in other history courses
I've taken.
The content of basic
African-American history content
they cover martin Luther king,
, they cover Malcolm X, they
cover the transatlantic slave
trade.
And then they ended right there
and they basically say, okay, if
you cover these three pillars,
we're basically done.
Laura: Instead, this four-part
curriculum spans centuries, from
ancient African kingdoms to the
transatlantic slave trade
reconstruction and the Harlem
, renaissance and modern civil
rights movements.
Tony: I believe the probably the
primary thing that the students
have taken away from the course
is the level of leadership,
intelligence and competence that
people of African descent, you
know, actually experienced
during the history that we
study.
Laura: Do you think that this
course is political?
Tony: I don't think the course
is political at all any more or
any less than American history
is political.
Laura:for green, it's the
capstone of more than 30 years
teaching African American
studies at this private catholic
school.
Tony: So this book here, the
miseducation of the Negro, is
the book that everybody starts
with because he talks at the
turn of the century about how
the study of African people in
their descent is never covered.
So we're totally miseducated
about who we are.
Laura: Texts like these are
under threat in a national
Republican campaign attacking
books and teachings about race
and lgbtq identity.
Gov. Desantis: Education, not
indoctrination.
Laura: It took root in forte,
where Desantis, Noah
presidential contender signed
, legislation to dictate how
black history is taught in the
state.
>> If you want to do things like
gender ideology, go to Berkeley.
Who would say an important part
of black history is queer
theory?
Laura: Backing the effort is
moms for liberty, a national
organization challenging
hundreds of books across the
country.
Jennifer pippin is a founding
chair of the group in Florida's
Indian river county.
She supported changing the
curriculum.
>> When they pulled that ap
American history course, they
saw that there was a lot of
critical race theory and also
queer studies in there that had
nothing to do with the
African-American teachings that
were offered in the course.
Laura: She claimed the course
lacked objectivity.
>> Look at both sides and let's
have critical thinking with
this.
So what they were discussing was
with the black lives matter
movement where is the
, opposition?
Is there a white lives matter
movement?
Laura: Since Florida's
announcement, four other
republican-led states launched
similar investigations into the
class, which green said does not
teach critical race theory or
queer theory.
It does teach about queer
activists, like James Baldwin,
who Willie Rogers calls a
personal hero.
>> That kind of idea --
Laura: Rogers chose Baldwin as a
subject for his final research
project.
As a singer, songwriter and
music producer, he grew up
admiring Baldwin's creative
struggle.
His mom, Adrienne, said she's
seen a change in her son,
including an interest in
attending a historically black
college in the fall.
>> I've just seen a lot of
growth.
He was actually learning and he
was enjoying learning.
Laura: They said attacks on the
ap class are misguided.
>> They're thinking that if you
learn about black history that
it might be teaching some people
to be anti other races and is
not.
>> Timmy it just shows a lack of
understanding for our culture
and for, you know, the
importance of having different
perspectives in our history the
same way, you know, you have
different perspectives in
American history.
Laura: Growing up in Oakland is
to be surrounded by that
history, and students got the
chance to see it up close.
They tasted gumbo, a dish born
in west Africa, passed down by
enslaved people and brought
west.
They took a field trip to study
housing discrimination and
redlining in the city, visiting
the birthplace of the black
panther party and historic black
, owned businesses like this
diner.
It's been eye-opening for junior
Bella, who is worried about the
censorship movement championed
by Desantis.
>> I've learned so much and it
feels like it's been covered up.
And I think a lot of it has on
purpose.
And I think that he wants to
continue that and keep people
ignorant.
And I think this class is not
helping him push his agenda, and
that's why he's trying to
silence this class.
Laura: You think he's trying to
cover up this particular history
black history?
,>> Yes I do.
Laura: The original curriculum
given to green and the other
pilot teachers at the start of
the school year has since been
revised, but Florida has not
reversed its decision.
Green stands behind the original
framework.
Tony: It's revolutionary,
engaging and, you know, vitally
important, you know, especially
in this day and age.
Social divisions have been a
part of the entire colonial
experience.
Social divisions have been a
part of slavery, reconstruction,
Jim crow, the black code, civil
rights movement.
Why would we think anything
would be any different right now
unless we work on erasing those
social divisions?
The only way to do that is
through education.
Laura: What does it feel like as
a black man to be able to teach
this course?
Tony: A lot of pride.
That we've come this far.
We struggle.
We still got a lot longer to go,
but a lot of pride.
Laura: More students will have
the chance to enroll in ap
African American studies this
fall, as it expands from 60
schools this year to more than
800.
For the pbs newshour, I'm Laura
barron-lopez in Oakland,
California.
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