By Joseph Green-Bishop
Texas Metro News Correspondent
Harvard Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and New Jersey Democratic Governor Philip D. Murphy are among the growing number of academics, elected officials and educators who are harshly critical of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Department of Education officials for their opposition to the contents of a high school Advance Placement course in African American history.
Governor DeSantis is not an expert in African American history, Professor Gates wrote in a recently published editorial. The governor “seems to be gleefully embarked on an effort to censor scholarship about the complexities of the Black past,” wrote Professor Gates, who was a consultant to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that developed the AP course.
“Enough already of this nonsense coming out of Florida,” said New Jersey Governor Murphy.
“This begins with Governor Ron DeSantis,” he said of the Florida governor who is expected to announce his bid for the White House in the spring. “And it is unacceptable and frankly shameful. We are Americans standing up. We have got to tell the whole story of our country.”
Murphy, a Democrat, said that the AP course without revisions would be available in 25 high schools in New Jersey once it is released.
Farmers Branch bookstore owner Nia-Taylor Clark, whose business sells and promotes books written about African American history and life, said that politicians should not be involved in the selection or exclusion of materials used by students in American high schools.
“Political leaders should allow educators to decide which books and materials to use in classrooms. They should leave the selection of materials to academic experts, and trust their professional judgement,” said Ms. Clark who earned a Master’s degree in education from Texas A M University in Commerce.
A former public school teacher who founded the bookstore “BLACKLIT,” Taylor-Clark said sometimes history reveals stories that are painful but the whole truth must be told through the study of history
“The sooner elected officials learn that lesson the better things will be for students,” she added.
Governor DeSantis and Florida state education officials said the AP course would not be offered in Florida schools because it “ indoctrinated” students and promoted political agendas; accusations that Gates, Murphy, Taylor-Clark and growing numbers disagree with.
“We reject DeSantis’s autocratic claim to knowing what materials should be available in AP African American Studies programs,” wrote 200 college and university professors from across the nation in a letter to DeSantis. “This is censorship, and an attack on academic freedom.”
The AP course, designed by the College Board, a non-profit educational organization, is currently being piloted in less than 100 high schools throughout the country. The course will be taught in about 700 American high schools during the next academic year. High School students that take advance placement courses receive college credit for their work.
The College Board revised the course after a draft was criticized by Governor DeSantis. Topics such as Black Lives Matter, Black Queer Life, Reparations and Affirmative Action were removed after the criticism. The removed topics can now be used for special projects, according to College Board CEO David Coleman, who saidthat political pressure had no role in the decision to change the course materials.
In addition to certain topics, noted African American authors bell hooks, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Angela Davis and Kimberle Crenshaw were removed from the AP course after the criticism and a section on “Black Conservatism” was added.
Joseph Green-Bishop is a long-time journalist who has published newspapers in America and Africa. Currently he is a news correspondent for Texas Metro News.
