Member-only story
About Great Visionaries — Carter Godwin Woodson, A Pioneer In the Study of African American Life and History
The father of black history.
Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 — April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916, Woodson has been cited as the “father of black history”. Woodson began publication of the scholarly Journal of Negro History and never missed an issue, despite the Great Depression, loss of support from foundations, and two World Wars. In 2002, it was renamed the Journal of African American History and continues to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
In February 1926 he launched the celebration of “Negro History Week”, the precursor of Black History Month.
Born in Virginia, the son of former slaves, Woodson had to put off schooling while he worked in the coal mines of West Virginia, and was largely self-taught in his youth. He gained a graduate degree at the University of Chicago and completed his Ph.D. in history at Harvard University in 1912, where he…
