Just found this great website by the name of “United Black America” they write some of the most conscious articles about Black Americans I’ve read thus far, and choose subjects that are highly relevant to us, brothers of today.
It a great insight in to the life of Dr. Carter G. Woodson and his now timeless book “The Miseducation of The Negro”
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Transcript below from UnitedBlackAmerica.com
Dr. Carter G. Woodson (Dec 19, 1857 – Apr 5, 1950) founder of Black History Month and author of The Miseducation of the Negro discusses problems that still plague African Americans and Africans today. His crowning achievement reveals to us how little progress has been made even a century later.
The Miseducation of the Negro Revisited
Who is Carter G. Woodson?
Carter G. Woodson was born on December 19, 1857 in New Canton, Virginia Woodson was the oldest of 9 children, and grew up in a typically poor Black family. To help his family, young Woodson worked in coal mines full time, but his love of learning also kept him in school full time as well. He completed elementary school, high school, and became principal of the all-black Douglass High School at the age of 25. He continued his education at Harvard, where he became the second Black man (behind W.E.B. DuBois) to receive a Ph.D. in 1912. He studied throughout Africa and the Philippines, and spoke French fluently.
Dr. Woodson authored more than 16 books, 125 book reviews, and 100 articles. He also founded Black History Month in February. Its important to note that Dr. Woodson chose February because the 13th Amendment (which outlawed slavery) was officially signed on January 31st. The announcement was made in February, and therefore Black History Month is then celebrated. It had nothing to do with the fact that February is the shortest month of the year.
Dr. Woodson was a founding member of the Niagara Movement (which later became the NAACP), a regular columnist for the Marcus Garvey newspaper The Negro World, and a witness to the Harlem Renaissance.
Carter G. Woodson died on April 3, 1950 of heart disease. At the time of his death, he was working on a six volume Encyclopedia Africanca. He left behind no children and was never married. When asked why, his response was “I am married…to my work”.His Washington, D.C. home has been preserved and designated the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site.
Introduction to The Miseducation of the Negro
The Miseducation of the Negro is arguably the crowning glory of Dr. Woodson’s work. In it, he described how the plight of our people at the time was the result of a process of miseducation imposed upon us by our oppressors (see: white people) directly through the public school system.
He writes; “At a Negro summer school two years ago, a white instructor gave a course on the Negro, using for his text a work that teaches whites are superior to blacks”, and “In medical schools Negroes were likewise convinced of their inferiority in being reminded of their role as germ carriers”. Black children then grew up, thoroughly indoctrinated in the belief that they were intellectually inferior germ carriers, and that their history began with slavery.
What is terrifying is that a century later, the same misinformation is being taught in our public schools. Back in January, dozens of activists, parents, and community organizers rallied outside of a Georgia school. The protest called for the firing of teachers involved in a 3rd grade math assignment that used slavery in examples at Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Norcross, Georgia. The math problems, which included references to cotton, orange picking and beatings, went something like this; “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?
The Author
