Dear Mr. Coleman,

 High school students across this country are watching as your organization caves under the pressure of extreme figures such as Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. However, one indisputable fact must be established: education should not be in the hands of politicians. It is the students who are affected by the curriculum you design; as students we need to have a voice in our own education, and as students we are speaking up to publicly oppose the whitewashing of American history. The unveiling of the AP African American history class was a crucial and valuable step in the right direction. But your decision to remove all contemporary issues related to race in America from the class framework was a backslide into what is easy over what is needed for change. How can we rectify the wrongdoings of American history if we refuse to confront them? We cannot always shy away from controversy because that is not how progress is achieved.

 Where would we be as a country if we always withdrew from contention? Where would we be if we never had those hard discussions that lead to a more widespread understanding? It is blatant hypocrisy that your organization chose to dilute the AP African American history curriculum because it was deemed to not have enough “educational value": why is it that the validity of Black history is questioned, while the AP European History course thrives unhindered? Too long, education has been Eurocentric and has failed to include the perspectives of historically marginalized communities. We were disappointed to see the College Board continue this pattern of systematic educational injustice.

 Your decision to mollify political extremists instead of serving the students you vowed to educate will go down in history as unjust. In the same way as we now reflect on the travesty of segregated schools and discrimination, one day we will reflect on your actions and how they precluded progress in education.

Sincerely,

Washington High School Democrats and the Undersigned