How Did Carter G. Woodson Impact The Civil Rights Movement

Duncan Chiaverini Mr. Crook 7th Grade ELA 26 February 2024 The Civil Rights Movement and Its Impact The Civil Rights Movement was an important time for African Americans to stand up for themselves against discrimination. This was absolute chaos though, since racism happened all the time with whites going against blacks back then, and even with them doing terrible, unmentionable things. Suddenly in history, many events featuring black activists (beginning with the murder of Emmett Till for example) changed the way people pictured these poor and helpless former slaves and other blacks in America. So today, many examples of this harshness toward African Americans shall be told in chronological order, for there is not all the space in the world.

Woodson was born 19 years after Bond moved to Pennsylvania, and his schooling after 1975 was -as the article in NAACP.org states- “erratic.” He was helpful to his family by working on the farm as a boy, and by his teenage years he worked in the coal mines of West Virginia (helping his father’s meager income). Woodson though, was erudite and was majorly self-taught, mastering common school subjects until he was 17. By the age of 20, he completed his diploma in less than two years! Woodson also worked as a teacher and school principal before earning his bachelor’s degree in literature from Berea College in Kentucky. Afterward, he became a school supervisor in the Philippines, and later on traveled throughout Europe and Asia. He ended up earning a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and also was the 2nd black American, after W.E.B. Du Bois, to obtain a Ph.D. degree from Harvard University. Eventually he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences as well. When Woodson was blocked from attending American Historical Association meetings despite being a dues-paying member, he thought the white dominated historical profession had almost no interest in Black History. He even saw African-American contributions suppressed by writers of history textbooks and others who use them! Woodson, with funding from several philanthropic foundations, founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 in Chicago for the study of the, as said at NACCP.org, “neglected aspects of Negro life and history.” One year later, he started the Scholarly Journal of Negro History, which is now under the name Journal of African American History. Woodson had started the concept of black history, and he launched Negro History Week. Later this expanded to what we know as Black History Month. Woodson died from a heart attack when he was 74 in 1950. His legacy lives on with Black History Month taking place every February. All the activists mentioned have