A.A.S.A. celebrates Black History Month
A reflection on Carter G. Woodson's life

-- Hosie Thurmond III, African American Student Association president

With February being Black History Month, I cannot help but contemplate its origins and its founder. It is amazing that every year we celebrate this month and still so many have never heard of its founder, Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950). I am both proud and excited this year that at Metropolitan State University, the African American Student Association (A.A.S.A.) will commemorate the legacy of Dr. Woodson at its Soul Food Dinner, Feb. 3, in the New Main.

Woodson was born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Va. He was born to former slaves James Henry Woodson and Anne Eliza (Riddle). Woodson credits his father for influencing the course of his life and he quotes his father as saying that “learning to accept insult, to compromise on principle, to mislead your fellow man, or to betray your people is to lose your soul.” This advice from his father would be the cornerstone of his educational and professional career. Woodson never compromised his principles and never betrayed his people.

Woodson received his bachelors of literature from Berea College in Kentucky; he studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris and in 1908 received his masters from the University of Chicago. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to receive a doctorate in history from Harvard University.

He was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the head of the graduate faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C. (1919-1920). He was also dean at West Virginia State College Institute in West V.A. from 1920-1922.

His proudest accomplishment would come on Feb. 7, 1926, when he organized and started Negro History Week. Woodson said "No other single thing has done so much to dramatize the achievements of persons of African blood."

Woodson continued to work for the future of his people, believing that by studying our past the African American could move more successfully into our future. How sad that this month has become a month of ritualistic observations and of compromising studies.

What I mean by compromising studies is the lack of historical depth when studying the accomplishment of the African American in this country’s history. How many educators have taught the contributions of the African-American inventors, poets and educators?

How many educators and students have heard of the accomplishments of inventor Garrett Morgan who invented the gas mask and the traffic light or Benjamin Banneker the scientist, astronomer, inventor and writer? Banneker published “The Farmers Almanacs” (1792-1797) and was asked by Thomas Jefferson to help with the surveying of what is now Washington, D.C. Another accomplishment not widely studied is the contributions of George Washington Carver, agriculturalist and chemist.

Here is a great trivia question for this month: Name the people who invented the fountain pen, the mailbox, the typewriter, the golf tee and the commode toilet. Here is a clue: They’re all African Americans.

To ask and educate us on these questions and others is what Woodson had in store for all Americans when he started this week of celebration. His hope was we would soon realize the history of the African American in this country is American History.

During the 1960s, Black History Week was expanded to Black History Month. Some have wondered why the month of February for Black History month; scholars have documented that February was chosen to observe the birthdays of the great abolitionist Fredrick Douglass whose birthday was Feb. 12 and President Abraham Lincoln whose birthday was Feb. 14.

Woodson dedicated his life to the advancement of the African American in this country. We of the African American Student Association proudly salute the father of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson, for his many accomplishments.

It is our hope, as the African American Student Association, that everyone will take this month and the rest of the year to discover the hidden history of the African American in this country. Maybe then we can all come to realize the vast multiculturalism in this great country in which we live.