Clayton High – AP African American Studies

Mar 2026 · 2nd Semester

AP African American Studies is an interdisciplinary course that examines the diversity of African American experiences through direct encounters with authentic and varied sources. The course begins by exploring the purpose and mission of the discipline of African American Studies and the leaders who fought to have it recognized on college campuses during the late 1960s and 1970s. Students explore key topics that extend from early African kingdoms to the ongoing challenges and achievements of the contemporary moment. Students will compare and analyze a range of perspectives about different movements, approaches, organizations, and key figures involved in freedom movements, as expressed in text-based documents, data, and visual sources. Given the interdisciplinary character of African American studies, students in the course will develop skills across multiple fields including, but not limited to history, art, sociology, geography, literature and more, with an emphasis on developing historical, literary, visual, and data analysis skills. This course foregrounds a study of the diversity of Black communities in the United States within the broader context of Africa and the African diaspora. The course includes a required independent research project with a topic of the students choosing.