Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875 - 1950) was an author, historian, scholar, and
founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Born to an extremely poor family of formerly enslaved Africans, Woodson grew up
on a farm in New Canton, Virginia. Largely self-taught due to a lack of
consistent access to school, Woodson was nevertheless able to master most
academic subjects and carry with him the pride of being born free. He left home
with his older brother at the age of seventeen in hopes of pursuing secondary
education at the Douglass High School and despite many hardships, worked
tirelessly until he was able to achieve that goal and receive his diploma. Over
the next twenty years, he would begin his academic career and embark on an
educational journey from the University of Chicago to Harvard, becoming the
second African-American to earn a doctorate and the only African-American to be born of enslaved parents and
receive a doctorate in History. Despite his many academic achievements, Woodson
was shut out of employment opportunities in higher education due to racism
and—growing increasingly frustrated—he set out to create an institution that
would make it possible for Black scholars to study the history of their people.
With the aid of William D. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, Alexander L.
Jackson, and James E. Stamps, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History in 1915. The very next year, the Association would begin
publishing The Journal of African American History which would be released quarterly without fail even in
the face of massive economic downturn and world war. Woodson also worked
tirelessly to produce his own books on African-American History over the next
thirty years including but not limited to: A Century of Negro Migration (1918), The Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861 (1919), The History of the Negro Church (1921) the first survey of free Black slaveowners in
the United States, Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in 1830 (1924) and his magnum opus, The Mis-education of the Negro (1933). During this period of continuous
academic output, Woodson also called for the celebration of “Negro History
Week.” First observed in 1926, Woodson sought to emphasize “the Negro in
history,” with parades, speeches, poetry readings, and lectures. Woodson’s
efforts—both academic and political—also placed him at the center of Black
intellectual life throughout the late 1920s and early 1940s, he even wrote for
Marcus Garvey’s newspaper The Negro World until knowledge of Garvey’s meetings with the Klu Klux
Klan became public. Having completely dedicated his life to the research,
Woodson lived out the rest of his days devoted to the preservation of
African-American history. While he would meet his ultimate end in 1950, Dr. Carter
G. Woodson’s life and work continue to live on in America today.