Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site

09/12/2026

Over the course of his life, Dr. Carter G. Woodson collected a massive collection of original documents and artifacts focusing on Black History. For the research and historic preservation work that he did, it made sense that he needed to keep that sort of thing on hand, but he could not use those resources forever. Eventually, he ended up donating a cache, including thousands of items, to the Library of Congress. Today, his collection is still available through the Library of Congress and can be navigated (if not always viewed) online!

What do you have that you think deserves to be preserved?

Image: When Dr Woodson's collection was put on display in the Library of Congress, archivists used related photos to highlight it, including an image (possibly this one) taken of his friend and colleague Mary McLeod Bethune at chapel service in her college in 1943. (Library of Congress)

09/11/2026

Did you know that in 1925, teachers at the Negro Manual and Training High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma were banned from teaching from a textbook written by a Harvard trained Black historian?

Dr. Carter G. Woodson had written "The Negro in Our History" textbook as a guide for educators on Black History. The school board was disgusted and believed the tone of the textbook was militant. The public outrage regarding the book's contents led to action in Muskogee. The training school's principal was forced to resign, and all copies of Dr. Woodson’s textbook were confiscated. Teachers were forbidden from using it any further.

At that time, white supremacist groups had a stronghold on the school board. To address public concerns, white educators took a neutral stance. They decreed that no book could be instilled in the schools that were either Klan or anti-Klan. They argued that Dr. Woodson’s textbook was "anti-Klan".

This did not stop Dr. Woodson from continuing to get the word out about Black History. Just one year later, Dr. Woodson would launch "Negro History Week, which is celebrated today as Black History Month.

Why do you think it was important for Dr. Woodson to keep going?

Image: Library of Congress

09/10/2026

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was far from the first person to record Black History - many of those before him also combined scholarship with activism. One of the most important Black historians prior to Dr. Woodson was George Washington Williams.

Williams was a Civil War veteran, a pastor, and wrote A History of the Negro Race in America: 1619 - 1880, the first book to attempt to cover the entirety of Black History in America. This book helped lay important groundwork for Dr. Woodson's own career.

What Williams is most famous for, however, is his exposure of atrocities in colonial Africa. In 1890, he traveled to the Congo Free State, where the indigenous people faced horrific abuses, massacres, and mutilations as loot seekers from around the world gathered there to plunder rubber and ivory. His open letter to King Leopold II of Belgium, the chief architect of the atrocities, represented the first attempt to call attention to and stop the pillaging of the Congo.

Image: Yale University

09/09/2026

Happy Founder’s Day, ASALH!

09/09/2026

Dr. Carter G. Woodson's office-home was not the only meeting point in Washington, DC for Black historians, as sometimes more space was needed. The Whitelaw Hotel was another important meeting point, and is a historic building you can still find in DC today at 1839 13th Street NW.

The Whitelaw was a hotel built both by and for African Americans amidst a segregated city, and was even designed by Isaiah T. Hatton, a locally trained and prominent African American architect. In addition to being a safe place to rest for visiting performers, businessmen, and politicians, the Whitelaw was often used to accommodate the ASNLH's annual meetings, headed by Dr. Woodson.

Image: Library of Congress

09/08/2026

Did you know one of the first known Sunday Schools in New York was started by a Black woman?

Catherine Ferguson was a formerly enslaved woman who became known for her care of local, neglected children. Her only education was her memorization of the Bible, having been enslaved by a Presbyterian minister or elder. She would regularly instruct the children in her care, and in 1814, she would move her school to the basement of a church, called the Murray Sabbath School. Under her care, she also found instructors and even homes for children in need. Ferguson’s charity and care went on for 40 years until her death in 1854.

Image: Library of Congress

09/05/2026

One of the lessons people can still learn from Dr. Carter G. Woodson's work is that changing the world for the better takes time and moves slowly. By studying African and African American History, he demonstrated that the changes had been going on for a long time already and were far from done in his own day and age.

Even his own success was in spite of some serious roadblocks that had been put in his way. Even in places where you would think his work would have been well-received, it was not always. His own academic advisor at Harvard, who had also advised W. E. B. Du Bois, famously wrote that: "Race measured by race, the Negro is inferior, and...he will remain inferior."

Despite this obvious failure as an educator to recognize the inherent humanity and great potential of some of his current and many of his potential students, Dr. Woodson overcame this and many other powerful figures to become a leading voice and an inspiration to others!

How do you feel when you get to prove someone who underestimated you wrong?

Image: Harvard University in the early 1900s was not designed for a man like Carter G. Woodson, but he didn't let that stop him. (Library of Congress)

09/01/2026

When Dr. Carter G. Woodson first began publishing his work, he faced significant challenges. By the early 1910s, he had completed two manuscripts: his doctoral dissertation, The Disruption of Virginia, and The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. But when he sought to bring those works to print, he encountered one roadblock after another.

At first, Woodson focused on publishing his dissertation. But a Harvard professor he asked to review the work delayed in reading it. When the professor finally did, he told Woodson that the dissertation was too similar to one written by a white student and published several years earlier.

Meanwhile, he faced a similar runaround with The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. A historian he had asked to review the manuscript repeatedly delayed doing so, and when Woodson finally approached a publisher, the work was rejected on the assumption that no one would buy it.

Eventually, in both cases, he was left with only one option: a publisher's subvention. Although the standard in publishing is for the publisher to pay the author for their work, it is also possible for the author to pay a fee to the publisher to get the work out. This is rarely, if ever, a good or fair deal for the author, but it does allow the message to be shared if all else fails.

Working as a teacher with a meager salary at the time, Dr. Woodson had to choose which to pay for, and “The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861” won out. It was met with tremendous acclaim from historians then and since. While “The Disruption of Virginia” was never formally published, an original typewritten copy has been scanned and is available on the Harvard Libraries website.

This work provided the historical foundation and analytical framework that Dr. Woodson used to develop his 1918 work, “A Century of Negro Migration,” making the latter a continuation and broader application of his earlier work. After all this, his decision to build his own publishing house makes a lot of sense!

Have you ever had to overcome barriers to define yourself?

Image: Library of Congress

08/30/2026

The Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site preserves the office-home of the “Father of Black History,” Dr. Carter G. Woodson.

A prominent historian and intellectual, his office-home served as his library, an archive, publishing house, and the national headquarters for his organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc. (now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc., or ASALH).

Junior Rangers can learn about Dr. Woodson’s early life and efforts in the field of history, particularly his creation of Negro History Week which is celebrated today as Black History Month. Earn your Junior Ranger badge today!



Image: NPS Photo

08/29/2026