The School District of Beloit has made history as the first Rock County district to offer an AP African American Studies course at Beloit Memorial High School.

Junior Jazmyne Ross says she’s thankful the class is available and it’s important to have, saying the topics they touch in this class aren’t gone through in a normal history class, and they need to be able to go more in depth on African history.

Fellow Junior Eli Evans says learning about figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X is important, but in normal classes you don’t learn a lot about African American history as a whole and the class gives students a better understanding of where people come from.

The course explores a number of topics including African civilizations, the African diaspora, the civil rights movement, and sociology.