Carter G. Woodson Carter Godwin Woodson was an African-American
historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African
American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American
history. A founder of Journal of Negro History, Woodson has been cited as the father of black
history. Background
Carter G. Woodson was born December 19, 1875, the son of former slaves, James and Eliza
Riddle Woodson. His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War and 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 the age of 20, Woodson entered Douglass High School, where he received his
diploma in less than two years. From 1897 to 1900, Woodson taught at Winona 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 in 1903 by taking classes part-time
between 1901 and 1903. Career in education
From 1903 to 1907, Woodson was a school supervisor in the Philippines. Later, he attended the
University of Chicago, where he was awarded an A.B. and A.M. in 1908. He was a member
of the first black fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and a member of Omega Psi Phi. He completed
his PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912, where he was the second African American
(after W.E.B. Du Bois) to earn a doctorate. 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 public schools, later joining the faculty at Howard University as a professor, where
he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Convinced that the role of African American history and the history of other cultures
was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson saw a need for research
into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson, Woodson published
The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 in 1915.
Carter G. Woodson stayed at the Wabash Avenue YMCA during visits to Chicago. Dr. Woodson's
experiences at the Y and in the surrounding Bronzeville neighborhood inspired him to create
the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. The Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and
History), which ran conferences, published The Journal of Negro History, and "particularly
targeted those responsible for the education of black children".
Woodson believed that education and increasing social and professional contacts among blacks
and whites could reduce racism and he promoted the organized study of African-American history
partly for that purpose. Woodson would later promote the first Negro History Week in Washington,
D.C., in 1926, forerunner of Black History Month. The Bronzeville neighborhood declined
during the late sixties and seventies like many other inner city neighborhoods across
the country, and the Wabash Avenue YMCA was forced to close during the 1970s, until being
restored in 1992 by The Renaissance Collaborative. He was the Dean of the West Virginia Collegiate
Institute, now West Virginia State University, from 1920 to 1922.
In addition to his first book, he wrote A Century of Negro Migration, which continues
to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
(ASALH). He studied many aspects of African-American history. For instance, in 1924, he published
the first survey of free black slaveowners in the United States in 1930.
He once wrote: “If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about
his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have to worry about what
he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel
him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make
a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back
door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature
of the man will demand that you build one.” 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 activities. Woodson made two proposals: That the branch secure an office for a center
to which persons may report whatever concerns the black race may have, and from which the
Association may extend its operations into every part of the city; and
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 proposal to divert
"patronage from business establishments which do not treat races alike," that is, boycott
businesses. Woodson wrote that he would cooperate as one of the twenty-five effective canvassers,
adding that he would pay the office rent for one month. Grimke did not welcome Woodson's
ideas. Responding to Grimke's comments about his
proposals, on March 18, 1915, Woodson wrote, His difference of opinion with Grimké, who
wanted a more conservative course, contributed to Woodson's ending his affiliation with the
NAACP. Black History Month
After leaving Howard University because of differences with its president, 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." 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." In 1926, Woodson pioneered the celebration
of "Negro History Week", designated for the second week in February, to coincide with
marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The week of recognition
became accepted and has been extended as the full month of February, now known as Black
History Month. Colleagues
Woodson believed in self-reliance and racial respect, values he shared with Marcus Garvey,
a Jamaican activist who worked in New York. 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 Black 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 African-American studies have become specialized fields of study in
history, music, culture, literature and other areas; in addition, there is more emphasis
on African-American contributions to general American culture. The United States government
celebrates Black History Month. Woodson's legacy
That schools have set aside a time each year to focus on African-American history is 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
Woodson was among the ranks of the educated few, he did not feel particularly sentimental
about elite educational institutions. The Association and journal that 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 that might 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". 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, Maryland. Honors and tributes
In 1926, Woodson received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn
Medal. The U.S. Postal Service issued a 20 cent stamp
honoring Woodson in 1984. 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.
Places named after Woodson California
Carter G. Woodson Elementary School in Los Angeles.
Carter G. Woodson Public Charter School in Fresno.
Florida Carter G. Woodson Park, in Oakland Park.
Carter G. Woodson Elementary School was located in Oakland Park. It was closed in 1965 when
the Broward County Public Schools system was desegregated.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum in St. Petersburg.
Carter G. Woodson Elementary School in Jacksonville. Georgia
Carter G. Woodson Elementary in Atlanta. Illinois
Carter G. Woodson Regional Library in Chicago. Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Chicago.
Indiana Carter G. Woodson Library in Gary.
Kentucky Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Lexington.
Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education, Berea College, in Berea.
Louisiana Carter G. Woodson Middle School in New Orleans.
Carter G. Woodson Liberal Arts Building at Grambling State University, built in 1915,
in Grambling. Maryland
Carter G. Woodson Elementary in Crisfield. Dr. Carter G. Woodson Elementary in Baltimore.
Minnesota Woodson Institute for Student Excellence in
Minneapolis. New York
PS 23 Carter G. Woodson School in Brooklyn. North Carolina
Carter G. Woodson Charter School in Winston-Salem. Texas
Woodson K-8 School in Houston. Carter G. Woodson Park in Odessa
Virginia The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American
and African Studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Hopewell. C.G. Woodson Road in his home town of New
Canton. Carter G. Woodson Education Complex in Buckingham
County, built in 2012. Washington, DC
Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington is located on the Carter G. Woodson Campus.
West Virginia Carter G. Woodson Jr. High School (renamed
McKinley Jr. High School after integration in 1954) in St. Albans, built in 1932.
Selected bibliography 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)