[Students in the course say it has been one of the most valuable
experiences of their school years, because it has allowed them to
focus on Black life and history beyond the fundamentals of slavery and
civil rights.]
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INSIDE A BROOKLYN SCHOOL TEACHING THE COURSE THAT FLORIDA BANNED  
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Troy Closson
March 22, 2023
The New York Times
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_ Students in the course say it has been one of the most valuable
experiences of their school years, because it has allowed them to
focus on Black life and history beyond the fundamentals of slavery and
civil rights. _

Shannah Henderson-Amare, center, teaches the new Advanced Placement
course in African American Studies at Brooklyn Preparatory High School
in Williamsburg. It is the only New York City school offering the
class this year., José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

 

Halfway through a yearlong high school course in African American
studies, Shannah Henderson-Amare asked her students to think about
college — but with a question that many had never heard posed in a
classroom before: Could they name the “Divine Nine,” the popular
nickname for a group of the nation’s Black fraternities and
sororities?

One senior immediately responded: “The Kappas!”

“Alphas.”

“Deltas.”

“The Ques!” others shouted out in succession.

For these New York City high school students, the exercise served as
the gateway into a day’s discussion about historically Black
colleges and universities, or H.B.C.U.s
[[link removed]] —
their history, influence and modern relevance. The lesson was part of
a new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies.

The College Board, which administers Advanced Placement exams,
introduced the class in the fall. It is being tested in about 60
schools this year, before becoming widely available
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the fall of 2024. But the course was thrust into a national firestorm
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banned it
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one of a series of moves
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state has taken to restrict teaching about race.

Officials had argued that the approach to issues including Black
queer studies, reparations and intersectionality
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both unbalanced and illegal. Several other states, including Arkansas
and Mississippi
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have now launched their own reviews of the course’s material.

Still, other cities and states
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including New Jersey, have pressed forward
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plan to expand the class.

In New York City, Brooklyn Preparatory High School in Williamsburg is
the only school offering the class this year. At least 48 city schools
will offer the class in the fall, the College Board said.

Students and families at Brooklyn Prep and elsewhere in the city have
clamored for Black studies: Three years ago, they were among the
nearly 30,000 people who signed a petition asking the College Board
[[link removed]] to
create two classes on the subject. So far, the students in the course
say it has been one of the most valuable experiences of their school
years, because it has allowed them to focus on Black life and history
beyond the fundamentals of slavery and civil rights.

“What struck me was the conversations we started having: People that
didn’t talk in class found their voice,” said Khia Williams, 18, a
senior in the class, who added that previously she had only had
similar conversations with her grandmother and other family members.

 

[Khia Williams sits on a desk in a classroom wearing a black
sweatshirt and ripped jeans.]

Khia Williams, a senior at Brooklyn Preparatory High School, says the
African American studies course has helped some of her classmates find
their voices.  A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

As unrest flared across the nation after the killings of Breonna
Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, teenagers at Brooklyn Prep, where
about 40 percent of the students are Black and half are Latino, helped
spearhead the petition for the course after expressing disappointment
that there was no A.P. course devoted to the tough issues they were
discussing at home and in their classrooms.

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When the pilot course was initially announced, Brooklyn Prep was not
among the high schools invited to join, but Ms. Henderson-Amare pushed
for the school to be included. Nearly 170 teenagers were interested in
enrolling in the class, almost a third of the school. (About 30
students ultimately enrolled.)

On a recent Thursday, during the lesson on H.B.C.U.s, which were once
the primary path for Black Americans
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obtain a higher education, the teacher guided the students through a
discussion that touched on various issues.

One student connected the schools with the 20th-century “New
Negro” movement
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tensions between
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views on Black advancement in America. Classmates weighed W.E.B. Du
Bois’s emphasis on liberal arts education and a more confrontational
approach to equal rights against Booker T. Washington’s belief that
building vocational skills and enduring segregation would lead to
gains.

The teenagers then discussed how old ideas still play a role in modern
debates on Black social progress. Some discussed how their parents
took pride in their culture but also told them to be careful about how
they express their racial and ethnic identities, or to “code-switch
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in professional environments or predominately white social spaces.

“I feel like it’s a generational trauma type of thing,” a
student responded. “My mom will always tell me ‘When you go
outside, watch how you talk because people are going to look at you
and judge you.’ She’s like, ‘I want you to do better for
yourself than me.’”

Earlier in the year students had been particularly interested in
lingering on a unit that focused on Black resistance, Ms.
Henderson-Amare said. The room had erupted into animated conversations
during lessons on groups like the Maroons
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enslaved Africans who lived in places including Jamaica, Colombia and
Suriname and who had escaped to freedom centuries ago.

The students also analyzed the meaning of the hymn “Lift Every Voice
and Sing
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widely known as the Black national anthem; many were not fully aware
of the themes of resilience, perseverance and struggle in the lyrics.

Leon Woolford, 17, a senior at the school, said he had realized that
his understanding of even better-known parts of Black history was
incomplete.

 

[Leon Woolford stands in a classroom with a baseball cap on and a
jacket in red buffalo plaid.]

Leon Woolford, a senior at Brooklyn Prep, said the African American
studies course has filled in a lot of blanks in his education about
Black history.  A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

He had been surprised during a recent lesson on the Freedom Riders
[[link removed]],
whose bus rides across the South in 1961 challenged the segregation of
public transportation and set the stage for major civil rights
legislation: “I thought I at least knew something, and I had the
totally wrong idea,” he said.

In elementary and middle school, Mr. Woolford said, he had
participated in discussions much less often. But when the A.P. class
delved into the poem “We Wear the Mask,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar,
about the ways Black people can hide pieces of their identities and
struggles from society, he said it attached “so much more importance
to what we do every day.”

The students have pushed for the chance to explore issues beyond those
in the course. Kwanzaa, for example, is not mentioned in the
curriculum. But the class commemorated the holiday in December, and
students created projects on the seven principles
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to the weeklong celebration.

Students said the A.P. course had led many of them to consider their
future in new ways.

Toward the end of the lesson on H.B.C.U.s, Ms. Henderson-Amare asked
the class to weigh the merits of those kinds of schools against
predominantly white institutions, and of academic higher education
versus career and technical learning as potential pathways to a better
life.

One student asked, “What does it even mean to have a good life?”

The teenagers quickly began chiming in, considering the importance of
a high-income career compared with other routes to a rich and
satisfied life, until it was time to head to their next class.

_Troy Closson is a reporter on the Metro desk covering education in
New York City. @troy_closson [[link removed]]_

* African-American Studies
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* public schools
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* Academic Freedom
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