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DR. CARTER GODWIN WOODSON
AND THE OBSERVANCE OF AFRICAN HISTORY

    
                                                                      

"If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible
factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated."

--Dr. Carter G. Woodson


Carter Godwin Woodson has been called the father of Black History Month.  Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), the son of former slaves James and Eliza (Riddle) Woodson, was born on a small farm in New Canton, Virginia.  From an early age he possessed an unquenchable thirst for learning.  When he could, he attended the local school, and eventually went to Berea College in Kentucky.  Ultimately, he obtained a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1907.  In 1908 he attended Sorbonne University in Paris where he became fluent in French.  He received a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University in 1912, becoming only the second African-American to earn such a degree.  Woodson taught briefly and held educational administrative posts in the Philippines, at Howard University (where he was Dean of the School of Liberal Arts), and West Virginia State College.

Dr. Woodson was a member of the Niagara Movement and a regular columnist for Marcus Garvey's weekly publication--the Negro World.  He was the founder, in Chicago in 1915, of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.  In the same year he founded the Journal of Negro History (now called  the Journal of African American History) --a publication still in existence.  As a contributing writer for the the Journal of Negro History, Woodson wrote more than a hundred articles and 125 book reviews. 

Carter Godwin Woodson was the founder of Associated publishers, founder and editor of the Negro History Bulletin, and the author of more than thirty books.  Probably Woodson's best known book is The Mis-Education of the Negro, originally published in 1933 and still relevant today.  In the Mis-Education of the Negro Dr. Woodson stated that:

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.  You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it.  You do not need to send him to the back door.  He will go without being told.  In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."

In 1926 Woodson initiated the annual February observance of Negro History Week.  He chose February for the observance because February twelfth was Abraham Lincoln's birthday and February fourteenth was the accepted birthday of Frederick Douglass.  By the 1970s, Negro History Week had expanded to become Black History Month. 

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was truly a great man; an intensely dedicated soldier in the cause of African freedom and redemption. We proudly salute and praise him, and as we rapidly approach the year 2000 and the new millennium we dedicate ourselves to extending Black History Month to the entire year and the unending and unceasing celebration, recognition and commemoration of the global history of African people.


SOURCES:
Journal Of Negro History, Founded & Edited by Carter G. Woodson
Negro History Bulletin, Founded & Edited by Carter G. Woodson


This Month in History


February 2010

February 4, 1986 | Sojourner Truth stamp, by Jerry Pinkney, issued by United States Postal Service

Jerry Pinkney, who created the first Black Heritage stamp in 1978, typically included a second element in his designs to provide historical context. For this stamp commemorating Sojourner Truth, he took a slightly different approach, opting for a powerful double portrait to emphasize Truth’s relentless crusade for women’s rights and the abolition of slavery.


SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY

1


3

Six time All-Star Bill White was named president of National League.

1956 - Autherine Lucy enrolls as the first African American student at the University of Alabama.

4

1986 - Sojourner Truth stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

1913 - Rosa Parks, civil rights pioneer who sparked Montgomery bus boycott, born.

5

6

Tennis player Arthur Ashe dies. Ashe was the first African American to win at Wimbledon.

1867 - Robert Tanner Jackson becomes first African American to receive a degree in dentistry.

7

9

1995

Bernard Harris, an African-American astronaut, takes a space walk.


1971

Baseball Hall of Fame inducts Leroy "Satchel" Paige.


1952

Author Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man wins the National Book Award

American biographer, scriptwriter, author who became famous with the publication of the novel ROOTS, which traces his ancestry back to Africa and covers seven American generations as they are taken slaves to the United States.

11

Nelson Mandela's greatest pleasure, his most private moment, is watching the sun set with the music of Handel or Tchaikovsky playing. Locked up in his cell during daylight hours, deprived of music, both these simple pleasures were denied him for almost 3 decades.

12

1909 NAACP founded by a group of black and white citizens committed to social justice; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's largest and strongest civil rights organization. The NAACP's principal objective is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice.

13

14



Valentine's Day

15



Presidents' Day

16


17


18

19


20

21

22

1841 Supreme Court heard arguments in the Amistad case.


1989 - Col. Frederick Gregory was the first African American to command a space shuttle mission.


23

24

25

26

1965 - Civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson died after being shot by state police in Marion, Ala.


1985

On this day at the Grammy Awards ceremony, African-American musicians won awards in several categories. Lionel Richie's 'Can't Slow Down' won best album of 1984. Tina Turner's 'What's Love Got to Do With It' took the best record slot and earned her the title Best Female Pop Vocalist. The Pointer Sisters won best Pop Group for 'Jump.'

27

1988 - Debi Thomas becomes first Black to win an Olympic medal in figure skating.


28

1984 - Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy awards.



 

29

(if this were Leap Year, and it's not)


1940
On this day, Hattie McDaniel known for her supporting roles became the first African American to win the Oscar Award for her role as 'Mammy'in the movie 'Gone With The Wind'. Not only was she the first African American to receive this award, but the was the only woman to have received it until Whoopi Goldberg received the same award for her role in the movie 'Ghost' 50 years later.


       

 
  
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