Dr. Carter Woodson Dr. Carter

Dr. Carter Woodson

Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson lived from 1875 to 1950. His home in Washington, D.C. -- where he resided between 1922 until his death -- is preserved by the National Park Service as an historic place in America. Woodson is very well-known as the "Father of Black History" but not everyone is familiar with his entire life's history.

Woodson was the son of slaves but he insisted on pursuing his education in order to help other African-Americans. He graduated from high school in Virginia -- although he didn't begin his formal education until the age of 20 -- and he went on to achieve a Bachelor's degree from Berea College (in Kentucky) in 1897 and was awarded an A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) and a Master's degree from the University of Chicago. In fact Woodson was the second African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. The first African-American to accomplish that was the iconic W.E.B. DuBois.

The reason he did not begin attending formal school classes until the age of 20, according to the National Park Service is that he was denied entrance to public schools in Canton, Virginia, and had to wait to attend school in Huntington, West Virginia. Some time later, in 1915, Woodson founded The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and still later he founded The Associated Publishers -- in order that African-American intellectuals and writers would have a respected outlet for their scholarship. The Association later became known as The Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH).

Under Woodson's guidance, ASALH launched the "Negro History Week" in February, to mark the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's birthday is February 12 and Douglass' birthday is believed to be on the 14th of February. Today, Negro History Week has been expanded to become Black History Month; hence the credit is given to Woodson for being the founder of Black History Month because he started Negro History Week.

Woodson used his degrees to teach for a brief time, teaching in the Philippines, at Howard University and West Virginia State College. While at Howard University he also served as Dean of the School of Liberal Arts. After completing his Master's at the University of Chicago (in 1908) he attended the elite Sorbonne University in Paris, becoming fluent in French.

The civil rights movement was many years off when Woodson became a member of the Niagara Movement, but it could be said that the Niagara Movement was the precursor to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The group was formed in 1905 by W.E.B. DuBois, among other noted African-American scholars and leaders. They formed the movement to try to bring an end to racial discrimination and used "Niagara" because they hoped to create a "mighty current" for social change in the U.S.

As a regular columnist for The Negro World -- founded by Marcus Garvey -- Woodson was able to publish his viewpoints regarding racial justice and other social issues. He wrote several books; among the best known was The Mis-education of the Negro. An excerpt from that book is very interesting: