Master Teacher: Alysha Butler
Course Dates: July 10–August 14, 2024
Live Session Time Slot: Wednesdays, 5–6 pm ET
Eligibility: High school students (grades 9–12)
Registration closed on June 28.
Image: Photograph of Rosa Parks, n.d. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09778.02)
AP African American Studies is an interdisciplinary exploration of the diverse experiences of African Americans and descendants of the diaspora. This course will examine key themes, events, movements, and figures from the four units of the AP African American Studies course through lectures, rich discussion, and analysis of the required sources central to the course. Our discussion will commence with an exploration of the complex societies that arose in Ancient Africa and conclude with an examination of the present and future prospects of contemporary diasporic communities. Each class will also include tips and practice for excelling on the AP African American Studies exam.
To complete a course, you will need to attend 5 out of the 6 live sessions.
Please email historyschool@gilderlehrman.org with any questions.
Week 1: Wednesday, July 10: Origins of the African Diaspora, Part I
Week 2: Wednesday, July 17: Origins of the African Diaspora, Part II
Week 3: Wednesday, July 24: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance
Week 4: Wednesday, July 31: The Practice of Freedom
Week 5: Wednesday, August 7: Movements and Debates, Part I
Week 6: Wednesday, August 14: Movements and Debates, Part II
You must have a Gilder Lehrman K–12 Student account to register for a History School course.
Alysha Butler is a social studies teacher at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, DC. In addition to teaching 11th grade US History, Ms. Butler also served as District Course Chair in 2019–2020. In 2019, she was named the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s National History Teacher of the Year and the Daughters of the American Revolution Outstanding Teacher of United States History and was a GrantEd Recipient. Before teaching at McKinley Tech, she taught at Miramar High School in Florida, where she won the school’s Teacher of the Year Award in 2010.