“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.”
Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month
The Father of African-American History
Imagine a world in which people like you have no written history, or that
which has been written is incomplete or distorted. Before Dr. Carter Goodwin
Woodson (1875–1950) began his work, there was very little information, and much
of that stereotypical misinformation, about the lives and history of Americans
of African descent.
Carter G. Woodson
Dr. Woodson was the son of former
slaves, but earned his
Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1912—only
the second black American to do so (after W. E. B. DuBois). This
achievement
was even more extraordinary since he did not begin his formal education
until
he was 20 years old. He had been denied access to public education in
Canton, Virginia, where
he was born in 1875, and did not start school until he moved to
Huntington, West Virginia. He received his high school diploma two
years later, a bachelor's degree from Berea College in 1897, and went
on to
earn A.B. and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago before
attending
Harvard.
ASALH
In 1915, he founded The Association for the Study of Negro
Life and History (the Association) and The Associated Publishers to assure an
outlet for the publication of works of African-American history and the
scholarly work of black scholars. The Association is now known as The
Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH). In 1926 the Association, under Dr.
Woodson's leadership, established Negro History Week to coincide with the
birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. He established the second
week of February 1926 as the first annual Negro History Week and fifty years
later it expanded into a month-long commemoration. The idea spread to South America,
the West Indies, Africa, the Philippines, the Virgin Islands and the UK (where
it is observed in October).Today this commemoration is known as Black History
Month.
Previous information adapted in part from: http://www.nps.gov/cawo/, please consult
for additional information and resources.
Not only did Dr. Carter leave us with a strong foundation to build upon, he also left us a model; a model of self preservation through telling our stories. Telling our stories is something the GLBTQ community has to engage in with reckless abandonment. It is only through telling our stories do we define ourselves rather than allowing others define us; in doing so redeeming our humanity: dignity and respect. In the spirit of Black History month, over the next several weeks, I will profile a few African American GLBTQ spiritual/religious leaders who have contributed to telling the stories of African American GLBTQ people.
Griffin, Horace L. Their Own Receive Them Not, African Americans Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches. The Pilgrim Press, 2006.
Johnson, E. Patrick and Mae G. Henderson, eds. Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology. Duke University Press, 2006.
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