Carter G. Woodson and the Work of History

Carter G. Woodson believed that people could not understand the past fully if whole groups were left out of its stories. As a historian, he spent much of his life gathering evidence about Black people and sharing what he found. His work helped more students and scholars see African and African American history as an important part of the human story.

Woodson was born on December 19, 1875, in Virginia. His parents had been enslaved before slavery ended in the United States. His family had little money, and he worked while he was young. He entered high school as a young adult and later continued his education in the United States and abroad. In 1912, he earned a doctorate, an advanced university degree, from Harvard University.

Woodson also worked as a teacher and school leader. He saw that many textbooks gave little attention to Black people’s lives and accomplishments. When Black people did appear, the accounts were often incomplete or unfair. Yet Black communities had long preserved and shared their own histories through family stories, records, books, newspapers, and other sources. Woodson built on a history that already existed; he did not create it.