Carter G. Woodson

Carter G. Woodson
Addison Norton Scurlock · Public domain · source
Name	Carter G. Woodson
Birth date	December 19, 1875
Birth place	New Canton, Virginia, United States
Death date	April 3, 1950
Death place	Washington, D.C., United States
Alma mater	Berea College; University of Chicago; Harvard University
Occupation	Historian; educator; author
Known for	Founder of Negro History Week; African American historiography

Carter G. Woodson was an African American historian, author, educator, and journalist who pioneered the study of African American history and institutionalized its public celebration. He earned advanced degrees, published seminal works, and founded organizations and publications to promote scholarship on African American history, African diaspora, and the contributions of people of African descent. Woodson established initiatives that influenced public curricula, museums, and commemorations across the United States and internationally.

Early life and education

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia area near Louisa County, Virginia in 1875, Woodson was the son of parents who had been enslaved under the antebellum order of Virginia plantation society and the postbellum realities following the American Civil War. He worked in coal mines in the Appalachian Mountains and taught in rural schools influenced by educators from Tuskegee Institute, Berea College, and other institutions serving freedpeople. Woodson received a high school diploma and enrolled at Berea College before attending the University of Chicago for undergraduate and graduate studies, where he studied under historians connected to the currents shaped by Progressive Era scholarship and had interactions with scholars associated with John Dewey and the Chicago School (sociology). He completed doctoral studies at Harvard University under the mentorship network that included figures shaped by debates around Reconstruction era interpretations and the legacy of scholars linked to Charles William Eliot. His dissertation and early formation occurred amid national conversations involving leaders like Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and reformers connected to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Academic career and scholarship

Woodson held faculty positions and lectured at institutions including Howard University, the historically Black college with faculty networks tied to Frederick Douglass’s legacy and alumni connected to Howard University School of Law. His scholarship intersected with contemporaries such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, and historians active at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. He founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to institutionalize research methodologies aligned with archival practices modeled on collections like the Library of Congress and the archival traditions emerging at the Newberry Library and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Woodson’s books, lectures, and editorial work engaged topics related to figures like Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and historical episodes such as the Transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction (United States), Great Migration, and the legacy of Jim Crow. He emphasized primary source recovery in repositories akin to Smithsonian Institution collections, encouraged oral history projects similar to later efforts at The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, and critiqued prevailing narratives influenced by scholars from Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University.

Founding of Negro History Week and Black History Month

In 1926, Woodson launched Negro History Week with colleagues from the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and educators connected to public schools in cities including Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. He timed the observance to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to engage civic calendars shaped by commemorations such as Lincoln’s Birthday and to collaborate with local organizations like NAACP, Urban League, National Association of Colored Women, and church networks rooted in denominations like the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Baptist Convention. The week catalyzed curricular adoption in school systems, cooperation with museums like the American Negro Exposition organizers and exhibitions at institutions influenced by the Smithsonian Institution, and outreach through periodicals similar to The Crisis and newspapers such as the Chicago Defender. Over subsequent decades, community groups, civil rights organizations including Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and legislators from statehouses to the United States Congress expanded the observance into Black History Month.

Later activism and organizations

Beyond publishing, Woodson organized conferences, workshops, and summer programs engaging activists and intellectuals associated with movements and institutions like Marcus Garvey’s networks, labor unions such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and educational initiatives linked to Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. He collaborated with educators influenced by the philosophies of John Dewey and activists shaped by Ida B. Wells, A. Philip Randolph, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Woodson’s organizational leadership emphasized independent Black institutions including publishing operations that paralleled presses like Doubleday and small scholarly outlets akin to The Journal of Negro History. He critiqued segregationist policies enforced in places governed by officials from states such as Virginia and Mississippi and supported campaigns that intersected with legal strategies advanced by Thurgood Marshall and litigators working with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Legacy and influence

Woodson’s influence shaped curricula in public school systems across cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Los Angeles and informed exhibitions at museums such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and programs at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. His founding of institutional frameworks inspired scholars at Howard University, Fisk University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Harvard University. Prominent historians and public intellectuals influenced by his work include John Hope Franklin, Rayford Logan, Molefi Kete Asante, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and E. Franklin Frazier. Commemorations include plaques and dedications in locations such as Washington, D.C. and academic prizes and programs at institutions like Berea College and foundations modeled after philanthropic efforts by Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation. His legacy endures in annual observances, museum collections, archival projects, and the expansion of African diaspora studies across departments at universities worldwide, from University of the West Indies to institutions in South Africa and Nigeria.

Selected works and writings

- The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), addressing curricula debates involving Tuskegee Institute and critics like Booker T. Washington. - The Negro in Our History (1922), engaging historiographical debates related to Reconstruction (United States) and figures such as Frederick Douglass. - A Century of Negro Migration (1918), documenting patterns linked to the Great Migration and cities including Chicago and New York City. - The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915), examining antebellum experiences tied to plantation systems in Virginia and institutions connected to Berea College. - The Journal of Negro History (founder and editor), a periodical paralleling scholarly journals published by American Historical Association members at universities like Columbia University.

Category:African American historians Category:American historians Category:Founders of observances