Biographical note

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.