Woodson, Carter G.

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950) organized the first Negro History week celebration in the second week of February. The week was later expanded to [Page 1072]Black History Month. Often referred to as the “Father of Black history,” Woodson wrote the classic text The Miseducation of the Negro in 1933. Educator and noted historian of African American history, Woodson was born to former-slave parents, December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia. His father, James Henry Woodson, and his mother, Anne Eliza Riddle Woodson, raised nine children. Woodson worked in the coal mines of West Virginia, having little formal education before the age of 20. After completing high school, Woodson entered Berea College, in Kentucky, known at the time for its coeducation of the races.

Woodson began teaching in West Virginia in 1898 and subsequently held numerous teaching and educational leadership roles, including serving as an instructor at Miner Normal College (later to become the D.C. Teacher's College). From 1900 to 1903, he served as principal of Douglass High School, and from 1909 to 1918, Woodson taught French, Spanish, English, and History at the M Street School in Washington, D.C.

In 1912, Woodson was awarded the doctorate of philosophy in history from Harvard University, the second African American to have obtained this distinction. Woodson cofounded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and served as the founding editor of the association's Journal of Negro History, launched in 1916.

Between 1921 and 1925, Woodson published four books, including Early Negro Education in West Virginia, The History of the Negro Church, The Negro in Our History, and Black Orators and their Orations. Other texts by Dr. Woodson include The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States From the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War, and African Myths Together With Proverbs, a supplementary reader composed of folk tales from various parts of Africa that was adapted for the use of children in the public schools. His journal publications include numerous articles in the Journal of Negro History, Howard University Record, Crisis, American Historical Review, and Negro History Bulletin. He also published widely about educational reform in the press, including articles in the Chicago Defender, engaging topics such as “Is the Educated Negro a Liability?”; “Service Rather Than Leadership”; and “More Teachers, Texts, Needed for Growth of Race History.” Awarded the Spingarn Medal for his leadership and historical scholarship, Woodson died in 1950, in Washington, D.C.