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Proposal to Name the Institute In Honor Of Carter G. Woodson
Date: November 25, 1981 I write seeking your endorsement of the proposal to name the Institute for Afro-American and African Studies in honor of Carter Godwin Woodson. The IAAAS Faculty Advisory Committee discussed this matter in some detail at both of its fall meetings. After a full presentation of the scholarly record supporting the naming of the Institute in honor of Mr. Woodson, the FAC voted unanimously and enthusiastically to instruct me to pursue this matter as expeditiously as possible. It was the Committee's conclusion that naming the IAAAS in honor of Mr. Woodson offered the University of Virginia a unique opportunity to bestow richly merited commendation upon the Virginia-born founder of the field of Afro-American and African Studies. Carter Godwin Woodson was born in Buckingham County, Virginia in 1875. The son of former slaves, Woodson worked in the mines and quarries until the age of twenty, obtaining his education during the four month term then customary for black schools. At the age of twenty, Woodson left Buckingham County and went to West Virginia to pursue further education. He graduated from high school at age twenty-two and immediately matriculated at Berea College, from which he graduated with honors. After working in the Philippines as a school supervisor, Woodson returned to the United States in order to attend the University of Chicago; he received his MA in History from Chicago in 1908. Woodson then journeyed abroad, doing graduate work in history at the Sorbonne; he completed his professional training at Harvard, from which he received his doctorate in History in 1912. Soon after graduation from Harvard, Woodson took up a teaching post at Howard University. There, he launched what was to become his life's work, the encouragement of serious scholarly work in the fields of Afro-American and African Studies. Largely as a result of Woodson's efforts, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History was established in 1915. In 1916, the Association authorized its director, Carter G. Woodson, to begin publishing a scholarly quarterly. This quarterly journal, The Journal of Negro History, became the single most influential outlet for pioneering work in Afro-American and African Studies. During Woodson's thirty-five year tenure as editor of the Journal, the Journal remained preeminent in the field. Woodson did not rest upon these already impressive laurels, for he believed that the best antidote to the racial chauvinism of his day lay in bringing the results of scholarly research and writing to the attention of the literate public. Thus, Woodson agitated for the creation of a national celebration of the heritage of peoples of African descent. This effort bore fruit in 1926 with the inauguration of Negro History Week, now expanded into Black History Month. Woodson saw Negro History Week as a mechanism through which to raise the consciousness of blacks as well as whites about the intimate linkages between the cultures and societies established by persons of African descent in the New World. Despite the heavy administrative burdens of both the Association and the Journal, Woodson remained an active, creative and productive scholar. (A list of major publications is attached.) In addition to his work with Afro-American and African Studies, Woodson found the time to be the Dean of Liberal Arts at both Howard University and also, for a time, West Virginia State College. The NAACP recognized the breadth and depth of Woodson's contributions when it awarded him the Spingarn Medal in 1926. Carter G. Woodson is generally recognized as "The Father of Negro History." Yet despite these lofty achievements, there is at present no suitable memorial to his life-long struggle to institutionalize the study of Afro-American and African societies and cultures. Attached to this proposal you will find letters of support received from some of the foremost scholars in the field, including letters from two of the elder statesmen in the field, Lorenzo Johnston Greene and Benjamin Quarles. Both Greene and Quarles have joined with another pioneer and contemporary of Woodson's, Charles Wesley, in consenting to come to Charlottesville this February for a celebration of the honor I hope the University will bestow upon Mr. Woodson. I have discussed this idea with a broad cross-section of scholars in the fields of Afro-American and African Studies. Without exception, they are as enthusiastic as are Messrs. Greene and Quarles and Ms. Mary Berry. Indeed, the response has been so warm that I suspended plans to solicity further endorsements. The time is ripe for the University of Virginia to concretize its dramatically uplifted stature in the fields of Afro-American and African Studies. Naming the Institute in honor of Carter G. Woodson would give the University an opportunity to take the lead in bestowing upon "The Father of Negro History" the recognition long due him. I hope you share my enthusiasm for this project and that you will recommend its immediate implementation. Letters of Endorsement Benjamin Quarles, Professor of History, Morgan State University, July 27, 1981:
Lorenzo J. Greene, Emeritus Professor of History, Lincoln University, August 4, 1981.
Mary F. Berry, Professor of History and Law, Howard University, September 2, 1981:
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