An American author, historian, and journalist devoted his life to the preservation of Black history.

Carter G. Woodson studied African-Americans’ contributions to the development of the United States, contributions that the Afro-Centrism movement finds believable, according to Wikipedia.

“[African-American contributions] were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history text books and the teachers who use them,” Woodson said. 

His examinations put Black people’s history and human experience into perspective, and in 1933 he authored one of his most popular books, “The Mis-Education of the Negro.” 

On February 26, 1926, Woodson founded Negro History Week, a predecessor of Black History Month. 

His idea was to encourage civil rights leaders, schoolteachers, religious leaders, women’s groups and fraternal associations to improve their understanding of African-American history.

He devoted his life to historical research and the preservation of African-American history; as part of that effort, he collected thousands of artifacts and publications.

As a member of the American Historical Association, Woodson realized the AHA was not interested in Black history. He was assured that he had no future in a White-dominated historical profession. 

In order to advance Black people’s contributions, he created an institution that would enable scholars to study history. 

On September 9, 1915, in Chicago, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in collaboration with other Black scholars.

The purpose of the Association was to have a scientific study of the neglected aspects of Black life, ushering in a new era and training people in a new method of research. 

They intended “to treat the records scientifically and to publish findings in the world, [avoiding] the awful fate of becoming a negligible factor in the thought of the world,” Wikipedia noted. 

Woodson believed that education among Black and White people could reduce racism, and promote the organized study of African-American history. 

Woodson’s devotion to history displayed his character, but it was his own history that got him to preserve Black History.

Woodson was born December 13, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, a son of slaves James Henry Woodson and Anne Eliza Riddle. 

The family struggled with poverty, but a young Woodson worked on the family farm contributing to their economics, and as a result the he was unable to attend preparatory school. 

In four months’ time he received academic instructions from his uncles and brothers, and as a result Woodson was able to master basic school subjects.

At the age of 17 he followed his brother Robert Henry to Huntington, West Virginia, with an aspiration to attend Douglass High School, a secondary school for Black children. 

In 1895, at the age of 20, Woodson enrolled fulltime at DHS. Two years later he earned a high school diploma and later became the principal of Douglass High.

From 1901 to 1903 he attended Berea College in Kentucky, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in literature. He also attended the University of Chicago, where he joined the first Black fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi. 

In 1912 Woodson earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, the second African American after W.E.B. Dubois, and the first descendant of slaves to receive the high academic honor.

Woodson later joined the staff at Howard University as a professor and eventually became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. 

On April 3, 1950, at age 74, Woodson died from an abrupt heart attack in his Washington D.C. home. He was buried at the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, in Suitland, Maryland. 

Today more than 30 academic institutions in 14 states have named their schools after Carter G. Woodson, recognizing his lifelong work of preserving American history. As a result of his historical efforts, Woodson was dubbed the Father of Black History, Wikipedia noted.

“[It’s] merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro have never contributed anything to the progress of mankind,” Woodson stated.