Carter G. Woodson

Woodson, Carter G. (1875–1950), historian, educator, and editor. Born in Virginia to former slaves, Carter G. Woodson worked in coal mines until he entered high school at the age of nineteen, finishing in less than two years. Over the next several years, he taught high school and obtained a BL degree at the interracial Berea College (Kentucky). From 1903 to 1906 Woodson worked as supervisor of schools in the Philippines. In 1908 he received both BA and MA degrees from the University of Chicago and began teaching high school in Washington, D.C. He earned a PhD in history from Harvard University in 1912, becoming, after W. E. B. Du Bois, the second African American to receive a doctorate in history. From 1919 to 1922 he taught at Howard University and West Virginia Collegiate Institute, and served in high administrative posts at both institutions.

In 1915, Woodson, with several other scholars, founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). ASNLH's publishing subsidiary, Associated Publishers, was for many years the leading black-owned press in the United States. The following year he founded the Journal of Negro History, the premier professional journal of African American history. He retired from the academy in 1922 to concentrate on the journal and ASNLH, both of which he headed until his death, as well as his own historical writing. He also worked on stimulating popular interest in African American history, initiating Negro History Week (which later became Black History Month) in 1926, and founding the Negro History Bulletin (for use in primary and secondary education) in 1937.

Woodson's historical works include The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915), The History of the Negro Church (1921), and The African Background Outlined (1936). He wrote several well-known textbooks, most notably The Negro in Our History (1922), popular in both high schools and universities. He was also greatly accomplished as an editor. He collected the speeches of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and many others in Negro Orators and Their Orations (1925). He published a collection of letters, The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis, 1800–1860 (1926), and edited the complete works of the minister and civil rights activist Francis J. Grimké (1942).

Woodson was particularly concerned with social and economic history. His work built on a previous tradition of black historians such as William Wells Brown and George Washington Williams, who used history to illustrate the virtues and potential of African Americans, as individuals and as a race. In many cases he pioneered attention to the particular circumstances and contexts of African American history. In Negro Orators and Their Orations, for example, he emphasizes the importance of the spoken nature of speeches by black orators, arguing that their performance could never be entirely captured by the printed page. His signficance for the study of African American culture and history, however, derives less from his own work and more from the institutional foundations and personal leadership he provided to the emerging discipline of black history. He inspired (and mentored) an entire generation of historians of African American culture, including Rayford W. Logan, Luther Porter Jackson, James Hugo Johnston, and others. His work, the journal he founded, and the scholarly activity he inspired all contributed to the cultural flowering of the Harlem Renaissance. The ongoing recovery of neglected aspects of African American history, literature, and culture owes much of its impetus to Woodson's founding efforts.

Bibliography

• Rayford W. Logan, “Carter G. Woodson,” in DANB, eds. Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, 1982, pp. 665–667.
• August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, Black History and the Historical Profession, 1915–1980, 1986.
• Jacqueline Goggin, Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History, 1993

Gary Ashwill

For more information on Carter Godwin Woodson, visit Britannica.com.

Called the "Father of Negro History," Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950) was instrumental in the founding of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. During his lifetime he was probably the most significant scholar promoting the history and achievements of African Americans.

Carter Woodson was born in New Canton, Virginia, in 1875 - ten years after the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, was written into law. His grandparents and his father, James, a tenant farmer, and mother, Anne, had been slaves. Consequently, when freedom was a reality, they were poor like thousands of newly freed families of African descent in the United States. Because of the close ties to his family and a strong sense of responsibility to them, Woodson worked throughout his early school years to help support his parents and siblings. By the time he was able to attend school, he was well past his teens.

Creative and imaginative as well as independent at an early age, Woodson taught himself by reading avidly in his spare time. As a result of his innate intelligence, personal accomplishments, and dedication to learning, he was able to complete high school. In 1903 he graduated with honors from Berea College, a unique college in the slave state of Kentucky. Founded in 1855, Berea introduced integrated education in the 19th century and thus permitted the enrollment of African Americans. Yet Kentucky had profited from the slave market and the psychology of its people could not accept racially-integrated classrooms. One year after Woodson's graduation the "Day Law" was passed, which prevented white and African American students from being in the same classroom or school community together. Integrated schooling became illegal. The pernicious "Day Law" was actually enforced for nearly half a century, a fact that was not lost on Woodson in his writings about the social customs and laws that served as obstacles to the progress of "the Negro race." He recorded these events as he pursued his interests in the study of African American history.

In 1907 and 1908, respectively, Woodson earned an undergraduate degree and his M.A. from the University of Chicago. Just four years after completing graduate training at the University of Chicago, he was awarded the doctorate from Harvard. This educational background in the country's leading universities challenged Woodson's creative imagination. He became increasingly interested in documenting for the permanent historical record the talents and accomplishments of the sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters of slaves.

Promoting African-American History

In 1916, during the height of World War I, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which Woodson had founded, issued the Journal of Negro History. This would become one of his most significant scholarly contributions for recording the backgrounds, experiences, and writings of Americans of African ancestry. He served as the sponsor and editor of the Journal of Negro History for many years. This important medium became a significant milestone in promoting the history and contributions of African Americans to the culture. African Americans themselves became aware of their own influence in the intellectual sphere and in the whole society.

In addition to establishing and publishing the Journal of Negro History, while Woodson was dean of West Virginia Collegiate Institute he served as president of Associated Publishers. The primary purpose of this innovative outlet was to publish and distribute writings by and about African Americans. When Woodson left West Virginia to continue his research, he involved himself more deeply in the work of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. It remains today as a monument to his dedication and foresight.

The broad spectrum of the life of Africans in America was of central interest to Woodson. He studied all facets of their experiences and rich cultural contributions. These included myths, patterns of migration, roles as wage earners, entrance into medicine, work in rural America, inventions and writings, and their unique history. In 1926, during the zenith of the Harlem Renaissance, he launched a movement to observe "Negro History Week." Woodson felt that an annual celebration of the achievements of the African American should occur during the month of February, since both the gifted abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln were born in that month. In the 1960s what was once only a week of recognizing the outstanding achievements of Americans of African heritage to science, literature, and the arts became transformed into "Black History Month."

The Writings of Woodson

Carter G. Woodson was one of the country's prominent historians and a prolific writer. From the moment he received the doctorate from Harvard, he initiated a career in publishing. In 1915 he wrote The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, in which he concentrated on both the obstacles and the progress characterizing the schooling of the descendants of slaves. Three years later he published A Century of Negro Migration. This was introduced in 1918, as World War I was coming to a close. The examination of patterns of migration was followed by The Negro in Our History, published in 1922. This work has been defined as "the first textbook of its kind."

Among Woodson's basic writings are those that describe patterns of migration and family composition. For example, under the auspices of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History he prepared two important documents - one on slave holding and the other on heads of families: Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in 1830, together with Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the United States in 1830 (1924) and Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830 together with A Brief Treatment of The Free Negro (1925).

African Americans who had entered the professions of medicine and law during the eras of Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction were of particular interest to Woodson. In 1934 Negro Universities Press published his documentation of The Negro professional man and the community, with special emphasis on the physician and the lawyer. Perhaps his most important work, and the one for which he is widely known in the late 20th century, is The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933, reprinted 1990). Woodson is remembered as a leading historian who promoted the rich intellectual and creative legacy of the African American.

Further Reading

Probably the two best books about Carter Woodson are Jacqueline Goggin, Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History (1993) and Pat McKissack, Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History (1991). Woodson's writings, in addition to those listed in the text, include The African background outlined or Handbook for the study of the Negro (1936), Freedom and slavery in Appalachian America (1973), Negro makers of history (1958), Negro orators and their orations (1925), The rural Negro (1969), The history of the Negro church (2nd ed., 1922), and Historical genealogy of theWoodsons and their connections (1915). See also Doris Y. Wilkinson, "Forgotten Pioneers," Think, the newsletter of the Kentucky Humanities Council (October 1988), and Encyclopedia of Black America (3rd ed., 1988).

historian; educator; editor

Personal Information

Born Carter Godwin Wilson, December 9, 1875, in New Canton, Buckingham County, VA; died April 4, 1950, in Washington, DC; son of James (a farmer) and Anna Eliza (Riddle) Woodson.
Education: Berea College, B.Litt., 1903; University of Chicago, B.A., 1907, M.A., 1908; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1912.
Memberships: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (founding member; now called Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History).

Career

Douglass High School, WV, acting principal, 1900-01; school supervisor in the Philippines, c. 1905; high school teacher in Washington, DC, 1909-19; Journal of Negro History, founding editor, 1916-50; Howard University, Washington, DC, professor of history and dean of School of Liberal Arts, 1919-20; West Virginia Collegiate Institute (now State College), dean of School of Liberal Arts, 1920-22; Associated Publishers Inc., founding publisher, 1921; Negro History Bulletin, founding editor, 1937.

Life's Work

Carter G. Woodson is known today as "the father of black history" and is credited with laying the foundations for the widespread adoption of black studies in American schools. When Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, the achievements of blacks were largely ignored by professional historians. Convinced that without a recorded history, the contributions of his race would be forgotten, Woodson set out to provide a means for the study of black American heritage. With the founding of the association and later, the Journal of Negro History, Woodson offered scholars a medium for the research and publication of articles on the black experience. Negro History Week (now Black History Month), which Woodson launched in 1926, opened the study of history to the wider public, offering information needed to appreciate and understand the role of blacks in American history.

All of these efforts to popularize black history were based on Woodson's lifelong conviction that a knowledge of history can significantly change society. By informing the American people of the achievements of blacks in the United States and Africa, he hoped not only to build self-esteem among blacks, but to lessen prejudice among whites. In a Journal of Negro History article, Woodson called prejudice "the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind." He predicted, however, that "the achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization."

Born the son of impoverished former slaves, Woodson's early years were marked by an unwavering commitment to education. Forced to work on his father's farm and later in the coal mines of West Virginia, he was largely self-taught until the age of nineteen. After graduating from West Virginia's Douglass High School in 1896, he went to Berea College in Kentucky, then famous for its acceptance of both white and black students. He left in 1900 to act as principal of his former high school, but returned to Berea in 1901. He received his B.Litt. degree in 1903.

For the next fifteen years, Woodson divided his time between travel abroad, teaching, and the continued study of history. For four years, he worked as a teacher and later as a school supervisor in the Philippines, and in 1906, having learned to speak French and Spanish fluently, he studied history for one semester at the Sorbonne. On his return to the United States, he attended the University of Chicago. After earning his B.A. in 1907 and his M.A. one year later, he moved on to Harvard, and later to a teaching post at a Washington D.C. high school. This position enabled him to pay for his graduate studies and to do research for his dissertation at the Library of Congress. When, in 1912, Woodson earned his Ph.D. from Harvard, he became the second black man in the United States to receive a doctorate in history.

By this time, Woodson was firmly engaged in the mission to which he would devote his life: the study and documentation of black history. In 1915, Woodson and a group of four friends sat down in a Chicago YMCA to form the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History or ASALH). The association was the first historical society devoted exclusively to research on the black American. It was established to encourage scholarly achievement, to sponsor research projects, and to collect and preserve records documenting the black past. At a time when few blacks were invited to participate in historical conferences, the annual meeting of the association offered black scholars an opportunity to present research papers before their peers. Even more importantly, the association began publication in 1916 of a scientific quarterly, the Journal of Negro History.

Still recognized as the most distinguished periodical in the field of black history, the Journal was innovative both in its interpretation of history and in the methods of research used to collect data. As editor for more than thirty years, Woodson encouraged scholars to seek information that had been previously ignored by mainstream historians. Quoted in a recent Journal article by Jacqueline Goggin, Lorenzo Greene recalled that "black and also white scholars turned to The Journal of Negro History if they desired to publish findings at variance with the currently accepted views of black people." Covering a wide range of topics, the Journal led to a shift in the focus of historians from the master's perspective to that of the slave's. Woodson and other Journal contributors also used census data, birth and death certificates, marriage registers, letters, diaries, and oral histories to investigate the black past. Only recently has this method of research been widely adopted by historians.

A few years after founding the Journal, Woodson accepted a position at Howard University as professor of history and dean of the School of Liberal Arts. He left in 1920 to act as dean at West Virginia Collegiate Institute (later State College). There, Woodson organized Associated Publishers to make possible the publication of books on black culture, books he believed would not be accepted by most commercial publishing houses. During this period, he also found the time to write two books, both published in the early 1920s, The History of the Negro Church and The Negro in Our History, the latter of which was a central text of the Black movement in the 1960s and is today a widely used textbook in universities. Over the next twenty years Woodson would write more than a dozen books and numerous articles on the black experience.

Woodson retired from teaching in 1922 to concentrate on his work with the association. Obtaining the necessary funds to run the organization was always difficult, and Woodson spent much of his life struggling to keep the association afloat. During the first years of its founding, Woodson supported the association largely on his teacher's salary. Although for a short period he obtained grants from the Rockefeller and Carnegie funds, he was forced in the 1930s--at the height of the depression--to rely almost solely on contributions from individual blacks and black organizations.

As documented in the American Historical Review, at the 1984 issue ceremony of the Carter G. Woodson commemorative stamp, Jim Finch, then the Deputy Postmaster General, remarked, "The Association was {Woodson's} life.... To him, no task was too small or unimportant if it helped the Association. Whether he was scrubbing the office floors or taking books to the post offices for mailing to other historians, Carter G. Woodson immersed himself in the Association's activities." Never married, Woodson reportedly once told a colleague, "I don't have time to marry. I'm married to my work."

In 1926, the first Negro History Week was established. Woodson described the event "as one of the most fortunate steps ever taken by the Association." Expanded in 1976 to include an entire month, the national celebration is held each year during the month of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Today, school programs, exhibits, essays, and poetry contests are held during Black History Month to dramatize the achievements of blacks and to encourage black children in particular to develop pride in their history. As quoted by Lerone Bennett in Ebony, W.E.B. DuBois commented that Woodson "literally made this country, which has only the slightest respect for people of color, recognize and celebrate each year, a week in which it studied the effect which the American Negro has upon life, thought, and action in the United States. I know of no one man who in a lifetime has, unaided, built up such a national celebration."

With the establishment of Black History Month, Woodson saw a need to publish a journal more closely associated with schools and one that simplified the study of history for the average reader. Thus, in 1937, Woodson founded the Negro History Bulletin. Until his death in 1950, Woodson devoted himself to directing the association, publishing its journals, and editing the six-volume Encyclopedia Africana.

Awards

Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1926; LL.D., Virginia State College, 1941; Carter G. Woodson Memorial Stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service, February, 1984.

Works

Writings

• The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, Putnam, 1915.
• A Century of Negro Migration, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1918.
• The History of the Negro Church, Associated Publishers, 1921.
• The Negro in Our History, Associated Publishers, first edition, 1922.
• African Myths, Associated Publishers, 1928.
• The Rural Negro, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1930.
• The Miseducation of the Negro, Associated Publishers, 1933.
• The African Background Outlined, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1936.
• African Heroes and Heroines, Associated Publishers, 1939.

Further Reading

Sources

• Journal of Negro History, Fall 1983.
• Ebony, February 1983; February 1980.
• Negro History Bulletin, January-March, 1981; October, 1982; January-March, 1984.
• American Historical Review, October 1984.

— Ann M. Peters

(1875-1950), historian. Born in New Canton, Virginia, Woodson was the only black American born of slave parents to earn a Ph.D. in history. One of nine children of James Henry and Anne Eliza Woodson, the future historian worked on the family farm as a small child and as an agricultural day laborer in his teens. The family moved to West Virginia, where, at the age of twenty, Woodson enrolled in Frederick Douglass High School and completed four years of course work in two years. He then enrolled in Berea College and graduated in 1903, one year before Kentucky enacted the Day Law, which prohibited interracial education. In 1907 Woodson enrolled as a full-time student at the University of Chicago and earned another bachelor's degree as well as a master's in history; his thesis concerned French diplomatic policy toward Germany in the eighteenth century. He earned a Ph.D. in American history at Harvard University in 1912, completing a dissertation on the secession movement in western Virginia. He taught high school in Washington, D.C., and later served as a dean at Howard University and West Virginia State College.

Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and the following year began publishing the Journal of Negro History. Through the Journal Woodson challenged the racist bias of mainstream studies of slavery, Reconstruction, and African history. The association functioned as a clearinghouse and information bureau, providing research assistance in black history to scholars and the public. The annual celebration of Negro History Week, begun in 1926, was among Woodson's most important achievements. During his lifetime the idea, which attracted whites as well as blacks, spread to South America, the West Indies, Africa, the Philippines, and the Virgin Islands. In 1937 Woodson also began publishing the Negro History Bulletin, which was directed at black schoolchildren.

With the publication of his first book, The Education of the Negro prior to 1861, Woodson embarked on a scholarly career that, judged by output alone, few could match. Between 1915 and 1947, when the ninth edition of The Negro in Our History, appeared, he published four monographs, five textbooks, five edited collections of source materials, and thirteen articles, and collaborated on five sociological studies. The major objective of his research was to correct the racist bias implicit in the work of most white scholars of the time. Woodson investigated all aspects of the black experience in the United States from the colonial period through the 1920s, as well as that of blacks in the West Indies, South America, and Africa. Woodson pioneered in writing social history using new sources and methods. He moved away from interpreting blacks solely as victims of white oppression and racism, viewing them instead as major actors in American history. In recognition of his work the naacp awarded Woodson its highest award, the Springarn Medal, in 1926.

Bibliography:

August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, Black History and the Historical Profession (1986); Earle E. Thorpe, Black History: A Critique (1971).

Author:

Jacqueline Goggin

See also History and Historians.

Teacher, scholar, publisher and administrator, Carter Godwin Woodson articulated ideas that are antecedents to the discipline of black studies; however, he is best known as the "father of black history."

Woodson was born in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia, to former slaves Ann Eliza (Riddle) and James Woodson. The oldest of nine children, Woodson labored on his father's farm and in the coal mines of West Virginia. Attending elementary school only a few months per year, Woodson was mostly self-taught. At age nineteen he enrolled in the Frederick Douglass High School in Huntington, West Virginia, where he excelled and completed the four-year curriculum in under two years.

Education and Early Career

Woodson attended Berea College in Kentucky for two years, until the institution closed its doors to blacks. Woodson took courses at the University of Chicago, returning to Berea (when blacks were readmitted) to complete his bachelor's degree in literature in 1903. Securing a position as general superintendent of education in Manila, the Philippines, for the United States Bureau of Insular Affairs, Woodson taught English, health, and agriculture. He resigned for health reasons in 1907, and traveled to Asia, North Africa, and Europe.

Woodson applied for graduate study at the University of Chicago; however, school officials would not recognize his Berea degree. This situation forced Woodson to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago, which he received in 1907. His master's thesis, completed in 1908, examined French diplomatic relations with Germany in the eighteenth century. Woodson then enrolled in the doctoral program at Harvard University. After completing coursework, he sought employment in Washington, D.C., so that he might have access to the Library of Congress. While teaching courses in American history, French, Spanish, and English at local Washington, D.C., high schools, Woodson researched and completed his doctoral dissertation on secession, entitled "The Disruption in Virginia," in 1912. At the time, he was the first African American of slave ancestry and the second African American, after W. E.B. Du Bois, to receive a doctorate from Harvard.

Woodson's desire to move into the academic world met with frustration. He failed to get his dissertation published and discovered that his professional options were limited. Committed to writing black history, he published another manuscript, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915). Quickly tiring of academic politics, he sought other avenues to advance his passion for the scientific study of blacks and black history.

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History

In 1915 Woodson, with associates Dr. George C. Hall, James E. Stamps, William B. Hartgrave, and Alexander L. Jackson, met at a downtown Chicago YMCA to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), later changed to the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. Founded as a historical society devoted to the research of black America, the organization was meant to be ideologically and politically independent. There were three organizational tiers within ASNLH: branch members who paid dues; professional historians who conducted research; and a publication department. In 1916 the association established a quarterly, the Journal of Negro History.

Woodson evolved a philosophy about black history: He wanted to free black history from white intellectual bias and present blacks as active participants in history. Additionally, he wanted both black and white people to be exposed to the contributions of blacks. He believed that black history should be a part of the school curriculum. Finally, Woodson saw value in James Robinson's "new" history that asserted that history could serve social change. His passion became obsession as he worked to protect and promote the ASNLH. He never married, and friends and supporters noted that Woodson worked day and night for his association.

Financing ASNLH proved difficult as member dues were never sufficient. Woodson raised funds from white corporate philanthropists; however, frequent disagreements and accusations of "radicalism" forced him to compromise his beliefs and declare his loyalty to American capitalism.

Struggling to support the organization and himself, Woodson accepted a position as principal at the Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington, D.C., in 1918. From there he moved on to become the dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Howard University. Clashing with Howard president J. Stanley Durkee, Woodson left after two years to become dean at West Virginia Collegiate Institute.

After 1922, Woodson was finally able to work full-time for ASNLH, conduct research, and publish prolifically. The spread of Pan-Africanism, Garveyism, and the emergent Renaissance cultural movement were indications of heightened racial consciousness among African Americans. This climate provided support for "race men." Woodson founded Associated Publishers, Incorporated, in 1921 to produce books endorsed by the association. By 1925 the Journal of Negro History had published ten monographs and many articles. Woodson expanded his public presence by writing articles for mass consumption, including many newspaper editorials and regular contributions in the Garvey organization's Negro World.

In 1926 Woodson and his association made their indelible imprint on America and the world. He began the celebration of Negro History Week - a special commemoration of the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. Additionally it would celebrate the achievements of blacks throughout history. In 1976 this celebration was expanded to the widely celebrated Black History Month.

In 1933 Woodson published his most celebrated work, The Mis-Education of the Negro. This penetrating work critiqued the established school curriculum as grounded in racism and Eurocentric thought. Such education, he believed, could only result in the colonial subordination of African people in America. The often quoted passage, "When you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions…. He will find his proper place and willstay in it" (p. viii) points to Woodson's assessment of the deleterious effect of existing schooling on the black psyche. Educated blacks would dissociate themselves from the majority of their race, and black people could never achieve unity and racial advancement with this type of education.

Concerned that the Journal of Negro History only reached a limited audience, Woodson established the Negro History Bulletin in 1937. Aimed at schools and young people, the Bulletin cost very little and used accessible language. Woodson's commitment to make black history accessible to elementary and secondary school students led him to write books for school children, which were often accompanied by study guides, chapter questions, and recommended projects.

Throughout the 1940s, the widely respected Woodson worked to popularize black history, maintain the ASNHL, and continue publication efforts. He was honored with the prestigious Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People along with several honorary degrees. The U.S. Postal Service honored him with a memorial stamp in February 1984.

Bibliography

Goggin, Jacqueline. 1993. Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

Hines, Darlene C. 1986. "Carter G. Woodson, White Philanthropy and Negro Historiography." The History Teacher 19:405 - 425.

Woodson, Carter G. 1915. The Education of the Negro prior to 1861. New York: Putnam.

Woodson, Carter G. 1998. The Mis-Education of the Negro. (1933). Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

Woodson, Carter G. 1971. The African Background Outlined. (1936). New York: Negro Universities Press.

— WILLIAM H. WATKINS

Carter Godwin Woodson
Carter G. Woodson
Born	December 19, 1875(1875-12-19) New Canton, Virginia
Died	April 3, 1950 (aged 74) Washington, DC
Education	B.Litt,Berea College (1903) M.A.,University of Chicago (1908) Ph.D., Harvard University (1912)
Occupation	Historian
Known for	Founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Established Negro History Wee

Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 - April 3, 1950)^[1] was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to value and study Black History. He recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity and left behind an impressive legacy. A founder of Journal of Negro History, Dr. Woodson is known as the Father of Black History. ^[2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 The NAACP 3 Black History Month 4 Colleagues 5 Woodson's legacy 6 Legacy and honors 7 Selected bibliography 8 Places named after Woodson 9 Citations 10 External links 10.1 Woodson's writings 10.2 Other information about Woodson

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was born in 1875 in New Canton, Virginia, the son of former slaves James and Elizae Riddle Woodson. His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War, and he moved his family to West Virginia when he heard that Huntington was building a high school for blacks. Coming from a large, poor family, Carter Woodson could not regularly attend school. Through self-instruction, Woodson mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17.

Wanting more education, Carter went to Fayette County to earn a living as a miner in the coal fields. He was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling. In 1895, at age 20, Woodson entered Douglass High School where he received his diploma in less than two years. From 1897 to 1900, Woodson taught in Fayette County. In 1900 he was selected as the principal of Douglass High School. He earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky.

From 1903 to 1907 Woodson was a school supervisor in the Philippines. Later, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was awarded an M.A. in 1908. He was a member of the first black fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and a member of Omega Psi Phi.^[3]. He completed his Ph.D. in history at Harvard University in 1912, where he was only the second African-American (after W.E.B. DuBois) to earn a doctorate.^[4] His doctoral dissertation,The Disruption of Virginia, was based on research he did at the Library of Congress while teaching high school in Washington, D.C. After earning the doctoral degree, he continued teaching in the publish schools, later joining the faculty at Howard University as a professor and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was either being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson realized the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with William Hartgrove, Cleveland Hall, Alexander L. Jackson, and James E. Stamps, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History September 9, 1915, in Chicago.^[5] That was also the year Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. His other books followed: A Century of Negro Migration] (1918) and The History of the Negro Church (1927). His work The Negro in Our History has been reprinted in numerous editions and was revised by Charles H. Wesley after Woodson's death in 1950.

In January 1916, Woodson began publication of the scholarly Journal of Negro History. It has never missed an issue, despite the Great Depression, loss of support from foundations and two World Wars. In 2002, it was renamed the Journal of African American History and continues to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

The NAACP

Woodson became affiliated with the Washington, D.C. branch of the NAACP, and its Chairman Archibald Grimké. On January 28, 1915, he wrote a letter to Grimké expressing his dissatisfaction with the way things were going. Woodson made two proposals:

1. That the branch secure an office for a center to which persons may report whatever concerns the Negro race may have, and from which the Association may extend its operations into every part of the city; and
2. That a canvasser be appointed to enlist members and obtain subscriptions for The Crisis, the NAACP magazine edited by W. E. B. Du Bois.

W. E. B. Du Bois added the daring proposal of "diverting patronage from business establishments which do not treat races alike." He wrote that he would cooperate as one of the twenty-five effective canvassers, adding that he would pay the office rent for one month. The NAACP did not welcome Dr. Woodson's ideas.

In a letter to Grimké on March 18, 1915, responding to comments about his proposals, Woodson wrote,

"I am not afraid of being sued by white businessmen. In fact, I should welcome such a law suit. It would do the cause much good. Let us banish fear. We have been in this mental state for three centuries. I am a radical. I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me."^{[citation needed]}

This difference of opinion with Grimké contributed to Woodson's ending his affiliation with the NAACP.

Roadside historical marker biography of Woodson

Black History Month

After leaving Howard University because of differences with its president, Dr. Woodson devoted the rest of his life to historical research. He worked to preserve the history of African Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African American contributions "were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them." ^[6]. Race prejudice, he concluded, "is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind." ^[7] In 1926, Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.^[8]. The week was later extended to the full month of February and renamed Black History Month.

Colleagues

Woodson believed in self-reliance and racial respect, values he shared with Marcus Garvey. Woodson became a regular columnist for Garvey's weekly Negro World.

Woodson's political activism placed him at the center of a circle of many black intellectuals and activists from the 1920s to the 1940s. He corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois, John E. Bruce, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Hubert H. Harrison, and T. Thomas Fortune among others. Even with the extended duties of the Association, Woodson made time to write academic works such as The History of the Negro Church (1922), The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), and others which continue to have wide readership.

Woodson did not shy away from controversial subjects, and used the pages of Negro World to contribute to debates. One issue related to West Indian/African American relations. Woodson summarized that "the West Indian Negro is free." He observed that West Indian societies had been more successful at properly dedicating the necessary amounts of time and resources needed to educate and genuinely emancipate people. Woodson approved of efforts by West Indians to include materials related to Black history and culture into their school curricula.

Woodson was ostracized by some of his contemporaries because of his insistence on defining a category of history related to ethnic culture and race. At the time, these educators felt that it was wrong to teach or understand African-American history as separate from more general American history. According to these educators, "Negroes" were simply Americans, darker skinned, but with no history apart from that of any other. Thus Woodson's efforts to get Black culture and history into the curricula of institutions, even historically Black colleges, were often unsuccessful. Today the United States celebrates the Black History Month.

Woodson's legacy

Statue of Woodson in Huntington, West Virginia

That schools have set aside a time each year, to focus upon African American history, is Dr. Woodson's most visible legacy. His determination to further the recognition of the Negro in American and world history, however, inspired countless other scholars. Woodson remained focused on his work throughout his life. Many see him as a man of vision and understanding. Although Dr. Woodson was among the ranks of the educated few, he did not feel particularly sentimental about elite educational institutions.^{[citation needed]} The Association and journal which he started in 1915 continue, and both have earned intellectual respect.

Woodson's other far-reaching activities included the founding in 1920 of the Associated Publishers, the oldest African-American publishing company in the United States. This enabled publication of books concerning blacks which may not have been supported in the rest of the market. He founded Negro History Week in 1926 (now known as Black History Month). He created the Negro History Bulletin, developed for teachers in elementary and high school grades, and published continuously since 1937. Woodson also influenced the Association's direction and subsidizing of research in African-American history. He wrote numerous articles, monographs and books on Blacks. The Negro in Our History reached its eleventh edition in 1966, when it had sold more than 90,000 copies.

Dorothy Porter Wesley stated that "Woodson would wrap up his publications, take them to the post office and have dinner at the YMCA." He would teasingly decline her dinner invitations saying, "No, you are trying to marry me off. I am married to my work". Dr. Woodson's most cherished ambition, a six-volume Encyclopedia Africana, lay incomplete at his death on April 3, 1950 at the age of 74. He is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland-Silver Hill, Maryland.

Legacy and honors

In 1992, the Library of Congress held an exhibition entitled "Moving Back Barriers: The Legacy of Carter G. Woodson". Woodson had donated his collection of 5,000 items from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to the Library.

His Washington, D.C. home has been preserved and designated the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Carter G. Woodson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[9]

Selected bibliography

Second edition of The History of the Negro Church (1921)

• The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915)
• A Century of Negro Migration (1918)
• The History of the Negro Church (1921)
• The Negro in Our History (1922)
• Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in 1830, Together With Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the United States in 1830 (1924)
• Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830, Together With a Brief Treatment of the Free Negro (1925)
• Negro Orators and Their Orations (1925)
• The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis, 1800-1860 (1927)
• Negro Makers of History (1928)
• African Myths, Together With Proverbs (1928)
• The Rural Negro (1930)
• The Negro Wage Earner (1930)
• The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933)
• The Negro Professional Man and the Community, With Special Emphasis on the Physician and the Lawyer (1934)
• The Story of the Negro Retold (1935)
• The African Background Outlined: Or, Handbook for the Study of the Negro (1936)
• African Heroes and Heroines (1939)
• The Works of Francis J. Grimké (1942)
• Carter G. Woodson's Appeal: The Lost Manuscript Edition (2008)

Places named after Woodson

Carter Woodson biographical cartoon by Charles Alston, 1943

• The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA [2]
• Woodson K-8 School in Houston, Texas
• Woodson Regional Library in Chicago [3]
• Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Chicago
• Carter G. Woodson Elementary, Crisfield, MD [4]
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson Elementary, Baltimore, MD [5]
• Carter G. Woodson Elementary, Atlanta, GA
• Carter G. Woodson Middle School in New Orleans
• Carter G. Woodson Elementary School in Los Angeles.
• Woodson Institute for Student Excellence Minneapolis, MN.
• Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Hopewell, VA
• C.G. Woodson Road in his home town of New Canton, Virginia
• Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington, DC is located on the Carter G. Woodson Campus
• Carter G. Woodson Park, in Oakland Park, Florida^[10]
• Carter G. Woodson Elementary School was a former school located in Oakland Park, Florida. It was closed in 1965 when the Broward County Public Schools system was desegregated.
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida [6]

Citations

1. ^ Current Biography 1944, pp741-44; Herbert Aptheker, ed., The Correspondence of W. E. B. Du Bois, (U. of Massachusetts Press, 1997) p182
2. ^ "History of Buckingham County", Buckingham County Website
3. ^ 1904-2004: the Boule at 100: Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity holds centennial celebration | Ebony | Find Articles at BNET.com
4. ^ http://www.newsweek.com/id/232818
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ Current Biography 1944, p.742
7. ^ Ibid.
8. ^ Delilah L. Beasley, "Activities Among Negroes, Oakland Tribune, Feb. 14, 1926, pX-5
9. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
10. ^ "Dr. Carter G. Wilson Festival". The City of Oakland Park. http://www.oaklandparkfl.org/index.asp?Type=B_EV&SEC={5BD110B8-7DD4-4AE1-A07C-043D46927297}&DE={4225AAD7-7EF2-4FD3-BF09-F068949400E4}. Retrieved 2008-12-15. 

External links

• The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
• The Audiobook version of "The Mis-Education of the Negro"
• The homepage for Carter G. Woodson's Appeal
• The History of Black History Month by Daryl Michael Scott on ASALH's website
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum

Woodson's writings

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Carter G. Woodson

• Works by Carter G. Woodson at Project Gutenberg
• The History of the Negro Church. ISBN 0-87498-000-3. 
• Mis-Education of the Negro. ISBN 0-9768111-0-3. 

Other information about Woodson

• Dr. Carter G. Woodson
• "Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson & the Observance of African History"
• Library of Congress Initiates Traveling Exhibits Program
• Library of Congress Traveling Exhibit re Dr. C.G. Woodson
• The Carter G. Woodson Collection of Negro Papers and Related Documents
• Carter G. Woodson Wax Figure at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum

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