Carter G Woodson Life and Career Part 2

In this episode of Black Studies Snacks we take a deeper look impact of the Father of Black Studies himself, Dr. Carter G Woodson. You will learn about his impact on Howard University, how he started Negro History Week, and the book he wrote that is still relevant today.

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Transcript

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Hello, scholars, and welcome back to another episode of Black Studies Snacks where we give you bite sized knowledge for hungry melanated minds. I'm Devon Travell, creator of Black Wall street, the board game and your professor of Black studies and entrepreneurship. On today's episode, we're going to take a deeper dive into the legacy, the contributions of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. We're going to take a look at his national impact and the book that he wrote that literally shook the education system. Are you ready? Are your minds hungry? Well, let's get snacking. All right. All right. Welcome back, scholars. It's going to be another great episode of Black Studies Snacks again, if this is your first time. I'm Devon Travell, creator of Black Wall street, the board game and your professor of Black studies and entrepreneurship. Last episode we talked and introduced you to Carter G. Woodson's early life. We talk about his family, his some early work experience that he got as well as his education. If you missed it, episode three, definitely make sure y'all go back, take a listen or take a look. Today I really want to take a deeper dive into his body of work. He is known as the father of Black Studies. Right. And I don't take that title lightly and I don't think that the people that gave him that title it lightly. He definitely put in a lot of hard work, sweat tears, equity. Right, that sweat equity into earning that title. And you're about to see why in this episode. So going back to his education. So while at Harvard University, Woodson had multiple interactions with faculty who believed that African Americans had no significant history or contribution to American society. He, of course, just like I would, just like I hope you would, took this personally. All right. And he was committed, he was determined to proving those professors wrong. It's kind of ironic that you know, himself would go on to have very significant impact not only on America, but in the world of education. You'll, you'll see that later on in this episode. But Starting off in 1913, Dr. Carter G. Woodson found his way to Howard University, Historically Black University in Washington D.C. That surprisingly at the time in 1913, had no black history classes prior to his arrival. So when he arrived, the history department had about four courses and they had no faculty with a doctoral degree. He put it on his back, put the history department on his back. He grew that history department from four courses to 22 courses and ensured that each course integrated the contributions of black Americans and black history into the curriculum. Right. Including the Slave trade, including abolitionism, the role of African Americans in the Revolutionary and Civil War and Reconstruction era. All right, so again, he was very intentional about not only growing the amount of history courses that the department had, but making sure that those courses basically became the first black studies or black history courses at Howard University. He also developed the history department's first graduate program offering a master of arts degree in history and culture of the Negro. This is why, I think, one of the many reasons he's known as the father of black studies. Now, quick question for y'all. As a historically black university, why didn't Howard already have black history courses? Again, this is a historically black institution or university founded to serve the African American population. And it was founded in 1867. This is only three years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Three years after a large majority of African Americans were given their freedom in America. This university is now founded, but for some reason, it does not have black history or black studies courses. Let me know. Leave your comments in the YouTube channel. If you're watching this on YouTube or if you are enrolled in our powerful academy, you can click the discussion tab and leave your comment or answer right in there. Now, after joining Hu's, that's what Howard people call it. I didn't go to Howard. I went to UC Davis. But from what I've been told, they say the Hu, and they put their hand like this. I think after joining HU's faculty, Woodson had the vision of creating the historical alliance, which he envisioned would raise funds to organize a Bureau of Research, right? The man's a visionary. He's trying to create the historic alliance. He's trying to build a Bureau of Research to collect and preserve historical sources and publish a quarterly journal of Negro history. Keep these things in mind. All right? This is the vision. This is what he wants to do. Keep these things in mind, because later on, he does something very similar to it. Now, early supporters, friends, colleagues, fellow professors, early supporters of the idea suggested that Woodson connect his vision to Howard University, right, or to the naacp. And they thought that this would almost guarantee the success of the vision. But Woodson, not first, he considered it, he pondered it. But ultimately, he committed to creating a new and independent organization that he can have. Have more control over. And y'all let me know if you connect with this, right? When I read this, when I heard this, I connected deeply to it. Because in starting Play Black Wall street, you know, people are like, oh, well, you should sell that idea to another company or you should partner with this bank. You should do it with this organization. And although it may have made the road a little bit easier, I felt like. And this could be to my detriment, right? This could be to possibly your detriment or the community's detriment that we try to do things ourself, right? Whether it's the pride, whether it's like, Dr. Woodson, you want to keep control. But we'll see. Time. Time will tell if I made the right decision in building Play Black Wall street up from the ground up. Obviously, it worked out for Carter Z. Woodson. Hopefully it can also work out for myself and for you. If you have a dream, but definitely consider, is your dream, is your vision something that you can and want to do by yourself, or are there some strategic partners you may be able to connect with, organizations, people, right, that you might be able to connect with to make your dream come true that much easier. Now, that was another aside. I'm gonna get back to it. The association for the Study of Negro Life and history was founded September 9, 1915. Now, I want to walk you through some of the journey or walk you through some of the struggle, because this is an organization that has survived over a hundred years, but it had a very rocky start. In the early years of the association, Woodson would do whatever it took to push it forward. And I want to actually take some direct quotes from a book that I got a lot of these sources from. And let's see, the book is A Life in Black History, Carter G. Woodson by Jacqueline Goggin. Great book. A lot of really good quotes in here. But let me go to. This is page 42, paragraph 2. And if you have the book, feel free to follow along. If you don't, this is why I'm reading it out loud, because I got it. So if I got it, you got it, right? It's the community. So paragraph two, page 42. In the first two years of the Association's existence, Woodson not only struggled to keep the Journal financially afloat, he also had to solicit enough articles and book reviews to fill its pages. All right, Was not easy, y'all. Here's another quote a little bit further down. At times when he lacked enough articles, Woodson may have written enough or. Sorry, Woodson may have written articles and signed his friends names. He also wrote unsigned or using pseudonyms. All right, so again, love how you're able to see the struggle, right? He was like, all right, I have this article or I have this publication. I want it to be filled. I'm soliciting I'm promoting. I'm asking for people. Right? It's not easy. People aren't just going to come to your YouTube page, come to your podcast, come to your blog, and just give you the resources that you need. You might have to work for it a little bit. And Woodson had to work for it a lot of it. So much so that he had to write articles using other names so that the articles or so that the book. Right. The publications weren't just filled with things that were written just by him. Right. Essentially, he wanted the organization to feel bigger than one person, feel bigger than himself. So, again, I love just being able to see and read the real hustle, right? The real grind, the real struggle that people had to make to literally make history. And if Dr. Woodson can go through it, if he can go through that grind, so can I, and so can you. All right, now let's get back to it. To get the word out about the new association and raise funds, Woodson would go on a speaking tour to different colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools to speak about the importance of accurate black history. And let me tell y'all, right? And these aren't my words. I didn't get a chance to experience it firsthand. But Dr. Woodson was a world class orator. All right, let me. Let me get back to. I'll show you. I'll tell you some stories, and I'll read some quotes. But in 1915, he was invited by Booker T. Washington to speak to the faculty and students of Tuskegee Institute. On another occasion, Woodson took a cab ride. I love the story. All right, let's listen. Listen to this. He took a cab ride to a speaking engagement and spoke so impressively to the cab driver that when he got to the destination, the cab driver asked, hey, can I park and come in to hear you speak? Can you imagine? Right? I mean, I'm in an Uber. I'm driving to Sacramento airport. I'm driving to LAX. I'm driving O'Hare, wherever I'm going. And I'm speaking about black history. So much so that the Uber driver's like, hey, I. I need to hear you speak. All right? I. I love it. Woodson speaking skills were compared to a skilled boxer. All right, again, quoting from the book by Jacqueline Goggin. He never hurried, never faltering, sparring skillfully for openings, driving home his blows deathly. All right, so just if you're a dancer, if you're a musician, something that my queen always says, it's like staying in the pocket, right? And I feel like we see that so clearly in athleticism. We see that so clearly when it comes to people that are singing, that are rapping, that are playing basketball, that are boxing. But sometimes it's hard to really put your finger on it on a speaker, right? So, again, he was so skillful with his words, skillful with his timing. It was like he was sparring skillfully for openings, driving home his blows. By the 1920s, Woodson's calendar, y'all, was full of speaking engagements. Again, he was doing this in order to fund the association. Okay, so this is proof that you have to find sources. You have to find funding sources for your dream, whether that's investors, whether that's selling products, whether that's having a separate 9 to 5, or turning your gifts into services. You have to find some type of way to fund your vision. Although the association would struggle with finding consistent donors and sources of income at the beginning, over a hundred years later, this association is still fulfilling the vision of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. And I have some personal notes because I'm also, as y'all know, I'm an entrepreneur. I have a business mind. And as I was reading through the book, there's a lot of business model and business strategy that Dr. Carter G. Woodson applied to growing the association. I think at some point, I'm gonna do another episode on just breaking down that business model. So if that's something that's interesting to you, let me know. You can put a business model inside the comments if you want to hear or see a walkthrough of the different business models and strategies that he used. Now, question number two. This is an interesting one. Well, I think they're all interested because I've made the questions. Question number two. Why do you think the association for the Study of Negro Life and History struggled to find donors and members in the early stages? Again, this is 1915, 1926. That range. This is during Harlem Renaissance. Ish. Two generations removed from enslavement in America. But for some reason, he's finding it difficult to find people, right? Whether it's people of color or allies that are willing to donate to study Negro life, that are willing to donate to help increase access to accurate black history. If you're enrolled in our course, again, leave a comment in the discussion tab. And if you're watching on the amazing YouTube channel, definitely make sure you leave a comment. And while you're there, make sure you also smash that, like, button and subscribe if you're not already subscribed. According to the analytics, 97% of the people that are watching this video right now are not subscribed. I don't know why. I think you're here because you love black history and you love Black studies. If that's true, hit that subscribe button. We appreciate it now. Perhaps one of his most enduring legacies for Dr. Carter Z. Woodson is the creation of Negro history week in 1926. This is, of course, a precursor to what is now celebrated all around, I think the world for sure, America, if not the world, Black History Month. So Woodson believed that understanding African American history was crucial, vital to the development of a positive self concept and a realistic understanding of the place of African Americans or Black Americans in history. And I agree with this belief and it's really becoming one of the driving forces of this podcast. Of course, Black Studies snacks. But of my overall just creative spirit, right? Whether it's Black Wall street, the board game, whether it's the black history adventures of Rose and Rodney, whether it's YouTube videos, it's really at my core, the reason why I create is because I also believe it's a positive. It's a way to positively increase my own self concept and hopefully the self concept of others. He also used Negro History Week as a recruitment recruiting tool for the association to gain more members and donors. Common question, right, that a lot of people ask is why is Black History Month in February the shortest month of the year? Why did America give us that month? So the answer is America didn't choose that month. Right? We chose that month. And by we, I mean Dr. Carter G. Woodson chose the second week of February specifically to launch Negro History Week as annual event to commemorate the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass, right, the famous abolitionist, author, speaker, powerful orator who was also enslaved himself in his early life, and President Abraham Lincoln, the President who signed the Emancipation Proclamation as a strategic document legally freeing enslaved Africans in Confederate territories during the Civil Right, not civil rights during the Civil War. All right, so again, this month wasn't necessarily given to us by the President, wasn't given to us by America. This was the month that or the week that Dr. Carjee Woodson chose for his own intentional reasons. And then he then worked years, right, doing programming consistently, and you'll see how. Let me, let me ask you, how many years do you think it took for Carjee Woodson and the community to do Negro History Week before America decided, you know what? All right, y'all got it. We'll give it to you. All right, how many years, you think? Go ahead, leave your guess in the comments. How many years? And you're gonna get the answer in, like, 47 seconds, I promise you. But in 1920s, Negro History Week was generally consisting of parades, right? With costume participants dressed up as historical figures, which is dope. It was consisting of speeches, community breakfasts. Breakfasts, Breakfasts, banquets, lectures, poetry readings, and special presentations. And here's another quote, right? Here's another quote. Let me pull it up for you. Here it is. In the Dusk of dawn, published by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1940, which is interesting because W.E.B. Du bois and Dr. Cargy Woodson had a little bit of beef. All right? Just a little bit. Not a lot of beef, but just a little bit of beef. Of course, if, you know, historically, W.E.B. Du Bois was the first African American to get his PhD from Harvard University, and Dr. Cari G. Woodson was the second, but he was the first who was a direct descendant from enslaved Africans. All right? So, you know, it's a little history beef in there for you. I think there was times where Dr. Carjee Woodson would reach out to W.E. Du Bois for supporting his research, asking him from, like, some primary sources and whatnot. And WEB was like, nah, I'm not gonna give it to you, Scholar Beef. It's interesting, but getting back to the quote. In the Dusk of dawn, published by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1940, he stated that Negro History Week was the greatest single accomplishment. I'm gonna say that one more time. Was the greatest single accomplishment to arise from the artistic movement of Negroes in the 1920s. And this is a huge statement because in the 1920s, there was also the Harlem Renaissance, right? Which is a whole huge historical movement on its own. But it comes from W.E.B. Du Bois himself, the legend himself, that Negro History Week was the single greatest accomplishment to arise from the artistic movements of Negroes in the 1920s. Now, after 50 years, okay, the first Negro History Week was facilitated in 1926, after 50 years of programming, 50 years of doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, for literally, for the culture, y'all. Finally, February 10, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford issued a message recognizing Black History Month, becoming the first president to do so. 98 years later, the association for the Study of Negro Life and History is still promoting February as Black History Month. And programming has become, I think, hopefully, you think, as well, a part of schools, colleges, churches, businesses, and pretty much ingrained into American history, right? We know that every February we're going to see Black History Month, commercials, promo, we'll see some discounts from different black owned businesses. Hopefully there's going to be some community barbecues near your neighborhood. It's a normal thing, right? But again, it took 50 years of community commitment, 50 years of doing it for the culture with no recognition before finally the president in America was like, okay, we'll give it to you. All right now, next question for you. Question number three. Do you think Dr. Carter G. Woodson will be proud of Black History Month today? Well, I just want you to picture it. Let's see. Let's say he strolled into your high school on a random February Wednesday, right? Well, he, let's say he sat in your black history or black studies class in college. Let's say he pulled up to the barbecue, grabbed a plate of your family's Mac and cheese, potato salad, smoked brisket, some fried chicken, some salad on the side. Because I think he would be a little bit healthy, right? And he sat down, he just watched the barbecue, the games. Would he be proud of what Black History Month has become or would he be disappointed? What do you think? I think the answers should vary depending on what community you're in. But let me know what you think. Would he be proud or disappointed? And just for a little bit of context, let me know what city you're from. Right? So again, in the comments, in the discussion tab or in the YouTube comments tab, go ahead and put proud, disappointed. You can elaborate on your answer a little bit and make sure you represent your city as well. Now, while there are plenty of achievements that we can discuss, the final one that we're going to discuss in this snacks episode, Remember, y'all, these are just snacks. He's just slow snacks. Dr. Woodson's most popular publication, it's still relevant today, is going to be the last thing we're going to talk about, and that is the miseducation of the Negro. Right? This was written in 1933 and I believe in a lot of educators will I think, back me up this text. All right, this publication is still 100% relevant today. And in the Miseducation of the Negro, he really critiques the American education system and its role in misleading and again, miseducating the African American population to further cement his global influence on the field of education more broadly. In 1966, right? 30 years. 33 years. My bad. Sorry for the math. 33 years after he published his book, an article was published called the Miseducation of the Filipino. Right, by educators and activists in the Philippines and This is a huge grand gesture of love, of admiration considering that Dr. Carter G. Woodson spent some time in the Philippines literally teaching students and training teachers. So I love that kind of full circle moment for his legacy for sure. But again, if you haven't read it, highly encourage you to pick up the book. I have that book somewhere on another bookshelf. I think we're going to do another episode probably, or even a whole season, just deep diving chapter by chapter what he's talking about in the Miseducation of the Negro. Very powerful book. But again, the book takes a real critical look at the curriculum, the conditions and the culture of education in African American communities. And it even goes as far as to claiming that highly educated Negroes, highly educated African American who think they have made it out, actually serve as a tool within the greater system. Okay, so again, very relevant still to this day, almost 100 years later, if you are interested in us doing a deeper dive into the miseducation of the Negro, just go ahead and drop miseducation inside the comments and then we'll know that means you want to learn more. Okay? But before we conclude, I of course would love to encourage each and every one of you to share this video with a friend, with a educator, you know, with a scholar, you know, a homeschooling family that, you know, let's really spread the knowledge and the legacy of Dr. Carter Z. Woodson. He put in a lot of work. We're still benefiting from a lot of the work that he put in. We're still reflecting from a lot of the work that he put in. So definitely make sure you like this video, right? Give it a thumbs up and then share it with one person that you want to see grow.