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Woodson, Carter Godwin (19 Dec. 1875-3 Apr. 1950), historian, was born in New Canton, Virginia, the son of James Henry Woodson, a sharecropper, and Anne Eliza Riddle. Woodson, the "Father of Negro History," was the first and only black American born of former slaves to earn a Ph.D. in history. His grandfather and father, who were skilled carpenters, were forced into sharecropping after the Civil War. The family eventually purchased land and eked out a meager living in the late 1870s and 1880s.

n 1915, Woodson published his first book, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 and co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).  In 1916, he singlehandedly launched The Journal of Negro History, now The Journal of African American History.  In 1918, Woodson published A Century of Negro Migration and became the principal of Armstrong Manual Training School, Washington, D.C.  From 1919 until 1920, he was the Dean of Howard University’s School of Liberal Arts and from 1920 until 1922 he served as a dean at West Virginia Collegiate Institute.  In 1921, he published The History of the Negro Church and founded the Associated Publishers, Inc.  After founding the ASNLH, he also became active in black organizations like the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Friends of Negro Freedom, and the Committee of 200. - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/woodson-carter-g-1875-1950#sthash.OuPLC99p.dpuf

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