FATHER OF BLACK HISTORY

Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History” was born in 1875. 

 Woodson didn’t attend school until age 20, working as a coal miner in Virginia until this time. After beginning his education, he eventually received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from University of Chicago. He then became the first PhD in History to graduate from Harvard University to descend from formerly enslaved people.

Woodson learned the history of Black African American people wasn’t being taught and he dedicated his life to correcting this omission, which led to the first Black History Week in 1925.

During the bicentennial year, 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized February as Black History Month, a significant part of American history.