Carter Godwin Woodson was a historian, journalist, and the creator of “Negro History Week,” which later became Black History Month.

Carter was born in New Canton, Virginia on December 19th, 1875. He was the son of formerly enslaved James and Eliza Riddle Woodson. The Woodson family valued education-Mr. Woodson moved his family to West Virginia to be closer to a black High School, and Carter, for his part, taught himself basic school subjects during times he was financially unable to attend school. He received his high school diploma in 1897 and taught for three years before becoming a high school principal and earning his bachelor’s degree in literature. Woodson continued to teach and learn, earning his doctorate in history at Harvard University in 1912. During his lifetime he corresponded and worked with people like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, and the NAACP, and wrote works such as the seminal The Mis-Education of the Negro.

Along with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week in 1926 as a way to encourage a coordinated time period of black history education in U.S. public schools. It took place on the second week of February, marking the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln on February 12th and Frederick Douglass on February 14th. Despite concerns from critics at the time (and critics today) that highlighting black history was unnecessary and divisive, carter believed “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and stands in danger of being exterminated.” By 1929 many states had already received official literature pertaining to Negro History Week. Carter himself helped distribute literature, founding the Associated Publishers-the oldest African American publishing company in the US and creating the Negro History Bulletin, designed for primary school teachers.

The first Black History Month celebration took place at Kent State in 1970, and it became a federally recognized month in 1976. Woodson was, unfortunately, not alive to see the evolution of his work-he died of a heart attack in Washington DC on April 3rd, 1950.

BRTW salutes Carter (O.)G. Woodson for his tireless commitment to educating our people and the world about Black history. You’re the real MVP.