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About the Course
AP African American Studies offers a rich, source-based encounter with African American experiences. You’ll explore key topics that extend from early African kingdoms to contemporary challenges and achievements. Drawing from disciplines including history, literature, the arts, geography, science, and law, you’ll study the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans and members of Black communities within the broader context of the African diaspora.
Throughout the course, you’ll examine different themes from a variety of perspectives, ultimately choosing a topic of focus for your individual student project, where you’ll define a research topic and present your argument.
Skills You'll Learn
Applying disciplinary knowledge of course concepts, developments, patterns, and processes
Evaluating written and visual sources and data
Developing an argument using a line of reasoning to connect claims and evidence
Equivalency and Prerequisites
College Course Equivalent
AP African American Studies is equivalent to an introductory college-level African American Studies course.
Recommended Prerequisites
None
Exam Date
About the Units
The course content outlined below is organized into commonly taught units of study that provide one possible sequence for the course. Your teacher may choose to organize the course content differently based on local priorities and preferences.
Course Content
Unit 1: Origins of the African Diaspora (~900 BCE–16th century)
You’ll learn about the discipline of African American Studies and the rich array of early African societies that created diversity in contemporary African diaspora communities, within and beyond the United States.
Topics may include:
- What Is African American Studies?
- Population Growth and Ethnolinguistic Diversity
- Africa’s Ancient Societies
- Indigenous Cosmologies and Religious Syncretism
- Global Africans
On The Exam
20%–25% of Score
Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance (16th century–1865)
You’ll learn about the emergence of the African diaspora in the Americas through the presence of both free and enslaved Africans, varied forms of resistance to oppression and enslavement, and ways Black resistance transformed the Western Hemisphere politically, socially, and culturally.
Topics may include:
- African Explorers in the Americas
- Departure Zones in Africa and the Slave Trade to the United States
- Creating African American Culture
- Gender and Resistance in Slave Narratives
- Freedom Days: Commemorating the Ongoing Struggle for Freedom
On The Exam
30%–35% of Score
Unit 3: The Practice of Freedom (1865–1940s)
You’ll learn how African Americans following abolition and the Civil War continued to assert social, cultural, and political visions defining their freedom, which they sought to protect while combating growing opposition and heightened racism.
Topics may include:
- The Reconstruction Amendments
- Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws
- Lifting as We Climb: Uplift Ideologies and Black Women’s Rights and Leadership
- The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
- The Great Migration
On The Exam
20%–25% of Score
Unit 4: Movements and Debates (1940s–2000s)
You’ll learn about the Black Freedom movement, the ways the African diaspora continues to affect and shape the experiences of African Americans and foster connections among Afro-descended communities, and study contributions African Americans have made to popular culture and to the fields of medicine, science, and technology.
Topics may include:
- Anticolonialism and Black Political Thought
- Major Civil Rights Organizations
- The Black Arts Movement
- The Evolution of African American Music: From Spirituals to Hip-Hop
- Black Studies, Black Futures, and Afrofuturism
On The Exam
20%–25% of Score
Credit and Placement
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Course Resources
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AP African American Studies can lead to a wide range of careers and college majors