This day in black history: honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Photo: Wikicommons

On today, December 19, 2013, Atlanta Free Speech celebrates the birth and life of Dr. Carter G. Woodson.  Woodson’s most famous work, The Mis-Education of the Negro, is a work that is still relevant today and calls for us to continue to question the state of blacks in America in relation to race, sex, class, and gender issues that are prevalent among the race.  He is also the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and a founding member of the Journal of Negro History. Woodson also pushed for legislation to acknowledge February as Black History Month, thus, making him the “Father of Black History.”  When remembering Dr. Woodson, let us think about the meaning of his infamous words…

“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.”- Dr. Carter G. Woodson

If you would like to learn more about this pioneer of Black Studies and Black History, works by Woodson, and on him are below.

• The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915)
• A Century of Negro Migration (1918)
• The History of the Negro Church (1921)
• The Negro in Our History (1922)
• Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in 1830, Together With Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the United States in 1830 (1924)
• Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830, Together With a Brief Treatment of the Free Negro (1925)
• Negro Orators and Their Orations (1925)
• The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis, 1800–1860 (1927)
• Negro Makers of History (1928)
• African Myths, Together With Proverbs (1928)
• The Rural Negro (1930)
• The Negro Wage Earner (1930)
• The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933)
• The Negro Professional Man and the Community, With Special Emphasis on the Physician and the Lawyer (1934)
• The Story of the Negro Retold (1935)
• The African Background Outlined: Or, Handbook for the Study of the Negro (1936)
• African Heroes and Heroines (1939)
• The Works of Francis J. Grimké (1942)
• Carter G. Woodson’s Appeal: The Lost Manuscript Edition (2008)