Black History Month: Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the Determined Intellect
by Philip J. Rogers, D.M.A.
 
            The establishment of Negro History Week, now Black History Month, was birthed from the historical passion of educator and historian, Carter G. Woodson.  Woodson recognized the importance of including the historical significance of black persons to that of the world history educational canon.  The following article gives a brief description of this determined intellectual scholar – the second black man to earn a PhD at Harvard University following W. E. B. Du Bois.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j5iUgg1MDI
 
From: ASALH: Association for the Study of African American Life and History – Est. 1915
 
“ASALH is itself part of African Americans treated, as Carter G. Woodson often said, as “a negligible factor” in American and world history.  While he labored with a singularity of purpose, Woodson did not work alone.  His co-workers at the Association were many, ranging from college presidents and government officials, to celebrated poets and philosophers, to everyday folks in rural hamlets.  To explore the history of ASALH is to glimpse a people’s strivings, their institution building.  To bring that history to life in one’s imagination is to walk with giants.”
 
His formative years by Burnis R. Morris:
 
Carter Godwin Woodson was born on December 19, 1875, near New Canton, Virginia. Carter, one of nine children, said he often left the dinner table hungry and sought food in nearby woods. After he went to bed on Saturday nights, his mother washed the clothing he had been wearing so he could don clean clothes to church on Sundays.
 
Woodson enrolled in 1895 at Huntington, West Virginia’s all-black Douglass High School and was frequently absent because he was off working, but he studied Virgil and Caesar on his own. He tested well and received a diploma after about a year of a two-year program in 1896, in a graduating class of two. Woodson then studied briefly at Berea College in Kentucky and at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania before moving to Fayette County, West Virginia, and teaching high school in Winona.
 
CARTER G. WOODSON by Korey Bowers Brown:
 
During the dawning decades of the twentieth century, it was commonly presumed that black people had little history besides the subjugation of slavery. Today, it is clear that blacks have significantly impacted the development of the social, political, and economic structures of the United States and the world. Credit for the evolving awareness of the true place of blacks in history can, in large part, be bestowed on one man, Carter G. Woodson. And, his brainchild the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc. is continuing Woodson’s tradition of disseminating information about black life, history and culture to the global community.
 
Known as the “Father of Black History,” Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure and make the most out of one’s divine right of freedom. Although he did not begin his formal education until he was [almost] 20 years old, his dedication to study enabled him to earn a high school diploma in West Virginia, his first undergraduate degree from Berea College in Kentucky, and bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago in just a few years. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a PhD at Harvard University.
 
Recognizing the dearth of information on the accomplishments of blacks in 1915, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
 
Under Woodson’s pioneering leadership, the Association created research and publication outlets for black scholars with the establishment of the Journal of Negro History (1916) and the Negro History Bulletin (1937), which garners a popular public appeal.
 
In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February, and today Black History Month garners support throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social backgrounds discuss the black experience. ASALH views the promotion of Black History Month as one of the most important components of advancing Dr. Woodson’s legacy.
 
Read the full account of the life and legacy of Carter G. Woodson:
https://asalh.org/about-us/our-history/