How teachers are handling America's most controversial class

Plus: 5 surprising Lenten traditions |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

By Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Since Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a month ago that the state’s education department would reject the AP African American Studies class being piloted nationwide, two schools in the state stopped teaching the course. But beyond the Sunshine State, teachers in the pilot program tell TIME that the controversy hasn’t affected the way they are teaching the course material. Students in Ohio were eager to relate the current controversy to the Black community’s fight for equal education opportunities throughout history, a teacher tells me. In fact, in Louisiana, Baton Rouge Magnet High School invited reporters and TV cameras into the class there. Teacher Emmitt Glynn said that ahead of a lesson on the Black Panthers’ Ten-Point Program—required reading in the College Board curriculum—he was worried about misconceptions about the group among the general public. “I’ve never experienced something like that in my teaching in 29 years, having to feel I had to take careful steps with a subject because it might make people upset,” he told TIME. Click here to read more about how the Florida controversy is affecting the teaching of AP African American Studies teachers nationwide.

HISTORY ON TIME.COM From Pinatas to Eating Muskrat: Here Are the Surprising Origins of 5 Lenten Traditions By Olivia B. Waxman From pinatas to pretzels to eating muskrat, some traditions for the period of Lent have taken on a life of their own. Read More » Why Malcolm X's Family Is Suing the FBI, NYPD, and CIA 58 Years After His Death By Nik Popli For more than half a century, the circumstances surrounding Malcolm X's assassination have been shrouded in mystery, fueling conspiracy theories about possible government involvement. Read More » The Black Power Movement Is a Love Story By Dan Berger More than outrage, the emotion most befitting Black Power is love, writes Dan Berger. Read More » Why Rewrites to Roald Dahl's Books Are Stirring Controversy By Armani Syed Puffin Books has rewritten parts of popular Roald Dahl books to remove offensive language deemed racist and sexist. Read More » Chester A. Arthur Is the Most Forgotten President in U.S. History By Olivia B. Waxman Research conducted over the course of several years reveals which Presidents are most widely remembered Read More »

FROM THE TIME VAULT This week in 1982: Having babies after the women's movement “To a doctor, a woman pregnant for the first time after 35 is an 'elderly primigravida.' If that sounds unappealing, it may reflect the medical establishment's longtime disapproval of delayed motherhood. The traditional view was that pregnant women in their 30s were risky patients, complications could be expected, and a caesarean, many doctors thought, was pro forma. Today that view has changed. ‘I even hate to use that term now,’ says Washington, D.C., Obstetrician William Gold. ‘We've learned that women over 35 can have normal pregnancies. Age is not necessarily a problem.’ The reversal has come about because of changes both in medicine and in women. The boom in fitness programs has put women over 30 into better shape than ever before.” (Feb. 22, 1982) Read More » This week in 1997: Holocaust survivors “Now nearing the end of their lives, in one last attempt to win restitution of what they believe is rightfully theirs, Nagel, Gabor and Schlinger have joined 12,000 Holocaust survivors in a $20 billion class action filed last October against four Swiss banks for the recovery of dormant accounts and looted property. Their suit--and the high-profile crusade by Jewish organizations, American politicians and Swiss activists--has inspired an unprecedented search through the darkest passages of 20th century history…As early as 1943, when Washington launched Project Safehaven to locate the Nazi plunder and find out where it was going, the U.S. knew most of it was entering Switzerland. That year, spymaster Dulles warned the Swiss government that much of the 100 tons of gold bullion the Reichsbank was selling for Swiss francs was stolen. Eventually, Safehaven agents concluded that some $6 billion in Nazi assets had been transferred into Switzerland from 1938 to 1945 under cover of bank-secrecy laws. Now that the paperwork from Project Safehaven has finally been unsealed, memos among the nearly two tons of documents provide damning evidence of how long, how closely and how lucratively Swiss banks collaborated with the Nazis.” (Feb. 24, 1997) Read More » This week in 2006: Google “Can Google maintain its success and remain true to the ideals that made it so popular? These are the guys who adopted as their informal corporate motto ‘Don't be evil.’ Sure, analysts in recent years have asked frequently whether Google's luck has run out, and yet the company kept thriving. But its vulnerability was plainly evident two weeks ago when jittery investors cashed out en masse after it reported an 82% increase in its fourth-quarter profit (below the market's expectations) and again after Google said it was launching a heavily censored Chinese-language site. Plus Google faces tough competition from big players like Yahoo!, which is making a dramatically different bet on the Internet's future, and Microsoft, which plans to challenge Google in search and advertising. The Google guys are feeling the heat. ‘I worry about Microsoft,’ Brin told TIME. ‘I don't worry about competing with them, but they've stated that they really want to destroy Google. I feel like they've left a lot of companies by the wayside.’” (Feb. 20, 2006) Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB On the auction block: CNN’s Zoe Sottile reports on auction house Raab Collection announcing the discovery of a 1787 letter that offers a glimpse at George Washington’s financial struggles. Book banning: For History News Network, journalist Brianna Labuskes details the World War II-era effort to censor the books that U.S. soldiers could read. Higher ed: In a Guardian op-ed, Derecka Purnell relates the controversy over AP African American Studies in Florida to past fights to teach Black Studies at the university level. Racism: Author Ibram X. Kendi writes in The Atlantic about white segregationists’ efforts to ban a Black history textbook by Carter G. Woodson, who would become known as the founder of Black History Month. Stitch through time: Beatrice Alvarez rounds up clips from PBS documentaries that show how Black women passed down their history through quilt-making.

Want more from TIME? Sign up for our other newsletters. Subscribe to TIME

TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services in this email. Offers may be subject to change without notice.   Connect with TIME via Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters       UNSUBSCRIBE    PRIVACY POLICY   YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS   TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508   Questions? Contact history@time.com   Copyright © 2023 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved.