BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " CARTER G. WOODSON " WAS A WRITER AND HISTORIAN KNOWN AS THE "FATHER OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH " : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY                                                                                                    

Carter G. Woodson Biography

Historian (1875–1950)

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QUICK FACTS

NAME

Carter G. Woodson

OCCUPATION

Historian

BIRTH DATE

December 19, 1875

DEATH DATE

April 3, 1950

EDUCATION

Harvard University

PLACE OF BIRTH

New Canton, Virginia

PLACE OF DEATH

Suitland-Silver Hill, Maryland

AKA

Carter G. Woodson

Carter Woodson

FULL NAME

Carter Godwin Woodson

NICKNAME

Father of Black History

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Carter G. Woodson was an African-American writer and historian known as the "Father of Black History Month." He penned the influential book The Mis-Education of the Negro.

Carter G. Woodson - Origins of Black History Month (TV-14; 02:20) Learn about Carter G. Woodson, the man behind the creation of Black History Month.

Synopsis

Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875 in New Canton, Virginia. One of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate from Harvard, Woodson dedicated his career to the field of African-American history and lobbied extensively to establish Black History Month as a nationwide institution. He also wrote many historical works, including the 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1950.

Early Life

Carter Godwin Woodson was born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, to Anna Eliza and James Woodson. The first son of nine children, the young Woodson worked as a sharecropper and a miner to help his family. He began high school in his late teens and proved to be an excellent student, completing a four-year course of study in less than two years.

After attending Berea College in Kentucky, Woodson worked for the U.S. government as an education superintendent in the Philippines and undertook more travels before returning to the U.S. Woodson then earned his bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Chicago and went on to receive a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912—becoming the second African American to earn a Ph.D. from the prestigious institution, after W.E.B. Du Bois. After finishing his education, Woodson dedicated himself to the field of African-American history, working to make sure that the subject was taught in schools and studied by scholars. For his efforts, Woodson is often called the "Father of Black History."

Writing 'Mis-Education of the Negro'

In 1915, Carter G. Woodson helped found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (which later became the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History), which had the goal of placing African-American historical contributions front and center. The next year he established the Journal of Negro History, a scholarly publication.

Woodson also formed the African-American-owned Associated Publishers Press in 1921 and would go on to write more than a dozen books over the years, including A Century of Negro Migration (1918), The History of the Negro Church (1921), The Negro in Our History (1922) and Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). Mis-Education—with its focus on the Western indoctrination system and African-American self-empowerment—is a particularly noted work and has become regularly course adopted by college institutions.

In addition to his writing pursuits, Woodson also worked in a number of educational positions, serving as a principal for Washington, D.C.'s Armstrong Manual Training School before working as a college dean at Howard University and the West Virginia Collegiate Institute.