Yet Republicans (40%) and white Americans (41%) are far less likely than Democrats (54%) and Black

 Yet Republicans (40%) and white Americans (41%) are far less likely than Democrats (54%) and Black

 Americans (52%) to say the lessons that “U.S. public school students are currently taught about African-American history” are “appropriate.”

The reason for this wariness becomes clear when respondents are shown a list of specific topics drawn from the AP African American studies draft framework — and then asked to say “which U.S. public high school students you think they are appropriate for: No students, only students enrolled in an Advanced Placement (AP) African-American studies course, or all students.”

While large majorities of Americans say it is appropriate for all students to study subjects drawn from prior centuries — the civil rights movement (74%), the role of slavery in the Civil War (71%), the history of the slave trade (71%), the experience of African Americans during Reconstruction and Jim Crow (59%) — the numbers are much lower for elements of the curriculum that address contemporary debates. And that’s in large part because they are lower among Republicans and white Americans.