In 1912, Dr. Carter G. Woodson earned a Ph.D. in History at Harvard University becoming the second African American to receive a Harvard doctorate, Recognizing the need to bring scholarly recognition to the study of African Americans, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 (Association for the Study of African American Life and History) and in 1916, The Journal of Negro History (Journal of African-American History). In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponds with the February birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February. “In honor of this milestone, ASALH has selected ‘A Century of Black Life, History, and Culture’ as the 2015 National Black History theme.” *
*Association for the Study of African American Life and History, A Century of Black Life and Culture: 2015 National Black History Theme, 2014.
Selected Works
Woodson, Carter G. The African Background Outlined: Or, Handbook for the Study of the Negro. Washington, D.C.: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1936.
Woodson, Carter G. African Myths and Folk Tales. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2010.
Woodson, Carter G. A Century of Negro Migration. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003.
Woodson, Carter G. The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. New York: Arno Press, 1968.
Woodson, Carter G. Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830: Together with a Brief Treatment of the Free Negro. Washington, D.C.: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1925.
Woodson, Carter G. The History of the Negro Church. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1989.
Woodson, Carter G. The Mis-Education of the Negro. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2008.
Woodson, Carter G, and Charles H. Wesley. The Negro in Our History. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1972.
Woodson, Carter G, and Charles H. Wesley. Negro Makers of History. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1958.
Woodson, Carter G, and James L. Conyers. Carter G. Woodson: A Historical Reader. New York: Garland Pub, 2000.
Biographies
Dagbovie, Pero G. Carter G. Woodson in Washington, D.C.: The Father of Black History. Charleston, SC : The History Press, 2014.
Dagbovie, Pero G. The Early Black History Movement, Carter G. Woodson, and Lorenzo Johnston Greene. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Goggin, Jacqueline A. Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993.