Carter G. Woodson was a great pioneer in the popularizing of African American history and was the most voluminous writer on this subject as an editor and historian. He was also the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Born in the remote town of New Canton, Virginia in 1875, his early schooling was so elementary and of such poor quality that he was justified in saying later that he “never went to school.”
At 17 he went to work in a coal mine at Huntington, West Virginia, but his love of knowledge was so great that despite the hard work, he studied the Latin and English classics at night and otherwise prepared himself to enter the high school at Huntington.
After three years of working in the day and paying for his tuition to go to school at night, he passed the high school examination with such high honors that he was given an advanced standing which permitted him to get his diploma only 18 months after entrance. Years later he was to be principal of this school.
After his graduation from high school, his path led upwards. Woodson got his A.B. and his master’s degree at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. in History at Harvard, and at the Sorbonne, Paris, he was one of the most brilliant students in French language and literature of that year. In 1903 he went to the Philippines as a teacher and five months later was made a supervisor of education. Later he was principal of the Armstrong High School of Washington, D.C., then the dean of the School of Liberal Arts of Howard University, and still later dean of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute.
But teaching was not his chief love. Woodson had been irritated for years at the misconceptions and falsities about African Americans, especially in American textbooks, so he decided to throw the whole weight of his knowledge against them. It was not a popular move, not only with the editors of textbooks and the white public, but with the African Americans, who were indifferent. He began the Journal of Negro History on January 1916. For many years the Journal was firmly established as one of the most scholarly and authoritative journals in America, with many of its articles being widely quoted. Its contributors, who were both white and black, were some of America’s foremost scholars, while the magazine itself was to be found in some of the leading educational centers of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the United States.
Woodson’s outspokenness at the manner in which African Americans were being taught to despise themselves by their teachers brought him several powerful enemies among leading African Americans of that time. But he was undaunted and attacked them fearlessly until they were forced to give their students a more self-respecting view of themselves.
Dr. Woodson’s most important work was the founding of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and the organization of the Associated Publishers. With its center in Washington, the association has been a great distributor of books on the Negro, principally histories, some written by Woodson and some by others, which were supposed to be used as textbooks in all grades of schools, from elementary to the university during his time, but they were rarely accepted by the commercial publishers.
He was also the principal founder of Negro History Week, which was by far the chief agency in popularizing African American Negro history, and having it taught in schools over the nation. It was celebrated for a week in February and later expanded to become Black History Month. Black History Week/ Month was to be celebrated as a proclamation, calling on citizens to observe the achievements of African Americans. When the Week was started, an annual meeting was held and recognized scholars of both “races” read papers and prizes were given for the best works on Negro history during the year, while schools and colleges over the nation listened to lectures on Negro history and achievement.
Dr. Woodson was tremendously effective in helping to improve the self-respect of African Americans, young and old, and giving them a brighter, more optimistic outlook. At the same time he was a force in helping white people view blacks with more appreciative eyes. While his contribution, due to its very nature, has not received the wide publicity of that of certain other noted Negroes, it is nonetheless deep and enduring.[1]
Sources:
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson
https://www.biography.com/scholar/carter-g-woodson
MORE BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CARTER G. WOODSON:
https://www.amazon.com/Carter-Godwin-Woodson/e/B001IXQ8Y0%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
The Historical Memory Recovery Channel 