NC is offering AP African American Studies as a social studies option for the 2025-2026 school year.
Social studies teacher Darrien Grays will be teaching the class
“I wanted to add this course to our offerings because I believe that it is fascinating content,” Grays said. “My hope is that this opportunity will encourage students that don’t traditionally or are hesitant to take AP classes to take the jump.”
The course is broken down into different units, some being the Sudanic Empires, Abolition and the Black Arts Movement. Each unit touches on a different aspect and time in African American history.
African American studies also dives deeper into topics that are only slightly covered in classes like AP US History and Ethnic Studies.
“I’m most excited about being able to cover events and people that don’t traditionally get highlighted,” Grays said. “This course will give me the opportunity to dive deeper into topics that I cover in the other classes that I teach U.S. History & Ethnic Studies but don’t have the time to fully examine.”
AP African American Studies was made with the help of experts in the field of African American studies such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.
The course was piloted during the 2023-2024 school year with 700 schools teaching it across the country.
The course was made available to all schools in the US in the fall of 2024. It was added to the NC Course list in January 2025.
Students have already added the course to their schedule.
“I want to learn more about my people’s history more than you would in US history,” sophomore Kimora White said. “This is a great opportunity to dive deeper into what really happened in history.”
It begins with the origins of the African Diaspora and ends with 20th and 21st century debates and movements and hopes to offer students a rich, evidence-based encounter with African American experiences.
Students feel the course will help them learn more about themselves.
“I feel like the biggest benefit to taking this class is that I can understand myself more and who I am as a person,” White said. “I can better understand what my place is in today’s society.”
The course will also relate the history being learned to modern day events and topics.
“I hope students that take the course will be able to see how the events of the past have shaped the world we live in, and how we can go about tackling the problems that persist,” Grays said.
AP African American studies will continue to be offered as a social studies class at North Central for future school years.
