Virginia Governor Vetoed Bill to Make Black History Classes Count Towards Graduation. What’s Next?

A Northern Virginia faith leader and parent said she will continue asking state lawmakers to make two African-American history courses count towards the state’s graduation requirements for history, after the governor — who vetoed the measure and whose four-year term is sunsetting — leaves office.

NAACP Loudoun Branch President Michelle Thomas speaking to a crowd during a Juneteenth Celebration in Leesburg. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)

Pastor Michelle Thomas, president of the NAACP Loudoun Branch, and Robin Reaves Burke of the Loudoun Freedom Center proposed the concept to state Del. David Reid, D-Loudoun, shortly after the commonwealth added African American History and AP African American Studies to the list of courses permitted to be taught in public high schools.

Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, and Reid successfully passed the proposal through the General Assembly with some amendments. On March 24, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed an amendment requiring the General Assembly to pass the proposal again in 2026, but lawmakers did not accept it. Youngkin then vetoed the bill, stating that it would cause students to miss “key concepts essential to understanding how historical world events have shaped our modern economy, government, and international relations.”

Thomas was surprised and disappointed by the decision, she said.

“You can’t divorce African American history from the founding of America. It is the absolute foundation of American history, and so to try to marginalize this and say students shouldn’t be learning it, or it’s not as important as mainstream history, or the history that he’s trying to tell is absolutely ridiculous,” Thomas said in a statement last week.

Thomas said she first considered proposing the legislation after her daughter was interested in taking an African American studies course and seeking flexibility with her class schedule towards meeting her graduation requirements.

Under Virginia’s standard diploma requirements, students are required to take U.S. History, Virginia and U.S. Government, and either World History or Geography. The bill would have given the students the option to substitute African American History or AP African American Studies studies with World History or Geography.

“While I am supportive of expanding choices in what classes students may take to satisfy graduation requirements, we must ensure that classes that replace others are germane to the comprehensive goals of high school education standards,” Youngkin wrote in his veto statement.

Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera said with the Board of Education revising the History and Social Science Standards in 2023, which sets what students are required to learn before graduating, all Virginia students will learn more historically significant figures of all backgrounds. Guidera said students will also learn about Black Americans, American Indigenous people and women leaders in the required courses.

“Our robust standards ensure the comprehensive, illuminating story of our history is taught to all students,” Guidera said in a statement to the Mercury. “While history electives are very important options for students to have and (to) count towards graduation, we know every graduate from Virginia’s K-12 schools needs a strong, broad-based foundational understanding of civics, world history, and the places, people, events, and ideas that shaped the commonwealth, the United States and the world.”

But Thomas defended the proposal.

“We’re not saying ‘do away’ or ‘you can take this or that.’ You can take all of them,” Thomas said. “You can take World History II, if parents feel like World History I and World History II are important. But for those parents (and students) who believe African American history is also and equally important, allow them to get graduation credit for it.”

She said she also believes the governor’s decision falls in line with a national agenda to minimize or remove public references to Black history, and could align with his future political plans.

The curriculum has been continually debated by the public, education leaders and Youngkin’s administration during the governor’s entire time in office, which concludes in January. The first AP African American studies course was added last year, but not without controversy — Youngkin’s education department proposed dozens of revisions before its approval, the Washington Post reported.

Reid said in a statement that he was disappointed by the governor’s decision and plans to reintroduce the bill at the next session, beginning in January.

“The governor chose to ignore the very values he outlined in Executive Order One on his first day in office — his stated commitment to teach the full story of American history,” said Reid. “Instead, he allowed political fear to override principle and missed an opportunity to give parents and students more choice in how they learn our shared history.”

He also said Virginia history and African American history are important parts of America’s origin story, citing the significance of the first House of Burgesses — the first democratically-elected legislative body in what would become America — and the arrival of the first Africans in present-day Hampton, both defining events that took place in Virginia roughly two weeks and 40 miles apart.

“Virginia history is African American history, is American history,” Reid said. “Our children deserve to learn the truth of our shared story — and they deserve the freedom to choose how they learn it.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include remarks from Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera.

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