GENESEE COUNTY, MI – Starting today, Carman-Ainsworth High School students can take a groundbreaking new course: AP African American History.

Carman-Ainsworth Community Schools became the first school district in Genesee County to add an advanced course in African American history to its curriculum at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

For several years, students frequently inquired about an AP course for African Americans at Carman-Ainsworth, which prompted the district to look into the course.

Letitica Stinson, a school counselor at Carman-Ainsworth School, collected data showing that many students in Flint Township and surrounding areas wanted the opportunity to attend classes.

Stinson approached Jessyca Mathews, a language arts teacher with a minor in history and a concentration in African American studies, and asked her to teach the course starting in the fall.

Mathews was “happy to give” the class because it was something she had wanted to do when she attended Carman-Ainsworth Schools in the 1990s.

“I’ve been hearing for decades, ‘Why don’t we have black history classes?'” Mathews said.

The course was approved by the Carman-Ainsworth Board of Education in April, Superintendent Cathy McGilvery told MLive-The Flint Journal.

The study will take place in four main areas: influences of Africa and African Americans worldwide, resistance to slavery, influence of African American culture on the Harlem Renaissance and feminism, and current events.

The final unit is something that students rarely have the opportunity to do in high school history classes: discussing current events.

There are opportunities for debates, and students can even complete three-week projects on topics they are passionate about in the context of African American studies.

“I think it’s important to be seen. In history courses, not just history but literature, we often forget that there are groups that are not seen,” Mathews said. “… A course where kids can feel seen – their whole story, not just a part of it – … is encouraging. And kids deserve it.”

Mathews and McGilvery hoped that other schools would follow Carman-Ainsworth’s example and incorporate AP African American Studies into their own curriculum.

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