Best known as the “father of Black history,” Carter G. Woodson stands as one of the imminent [Page 946]Black intellectual figures of the last two centuries. He integrated his interest in Black life with curriculum study. Woodson was a teacher, scholar, author, publisher, and organization administrator, and many contemporary scholars view Woodson's ideas as antecedents to Black studies and even multicultural education. Additionally, he was an acerbic and indefatigable critic of the curriculum offered African Americans in (segregated) schools.

Woodson was born December 9, 1875, to impoverished former slaves in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia. Attending elementary school only a few months per year, the mostly self-taught young man completed a 4-year high school curriculum in less than 2 years. He subsequently attended Berea College (Kentucky), ...