Attachment_C_-_CAWO_Text_Level_IV_FINAL_04_Legacy_20210319a_0002.docx

CAWO Carter G. Woodson Home NHS Final Documents 20210319

Scene 04 Legacy: Level IV Production Text

· Final copy for production

Scene 04 Legacy: Outline for media elements (blue cells)

· Outline-level content for media elements including storylines, featured individuals, references, sources

· Media elements are highlighted in blue below. Please see Project Book 4: Media for treatments that accompany this content.

· Please note that the collection of individuals and groups to feature in each Content Group’s digital interactive have been arranged in order of priority, with those stories that are most important and relevant to Woodson’s life and work positioned first.

Notes:

· Please see associated Style Guide for grammar and word choice guidelines

The exhibit’s Big Idea: Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History, started a movement to uplift people through knowledge.[footnoteRef:1] [1: As drafted by NPS and ASALH content team, 20190712]

Header above projection Because of Dr. Woodson…

04.01 INTRO

Media:

EP-04.01-001 Intro Projection [Projected text statements combined with Woodson reenactor filmed figure, reenactor spoken audio, and narrator audio]

Through his work, Dr. Carter Woodson confronted challenges facing African Americans. He fought myths and stereotypes that were recorded as “history.” His research shed light on contributions of people of African descent, too long ignored or forgotten.[footnoteRef:2] [2: The Mind of Carter G. Woodson, As Reflected in the Books he owned, Read and Published, A catalog of the Library of Carter G. Woodson, Emory University 2006.]

Dr. Woodson showed that Black history is world history and used it to fight for Black identity.

Since his passing, others have built on that knowledge to change the world.

[Quote to use in reenactor script:]

"We must go back to the achievements of these Black men, then, and looking into these Black faces of heroes and heroines, get inspiration to achieve as well as they did. With a vision of these great souls looking down upon us and urging us on to complete the unfinished task to the performance of which they made an outstanding contribution, let us press forward to the next objective...."

· Woodson, 1932[footnoteRef:3] [3: Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1932]

04.01 INTRO

Media:

EP-01.06-002

Please note: EP-01.06-002 Audio Description for Media program will be used to orient blind and low-vision visitors to this gallery’s interactive elements. The Audio Description of EP-04.01-001 Intro Projection should conclude with a description of the gallery’s interactive touchscreens and their associated audio pylons. In addition, once the visitor is positioned at one of the interactives, the Audio Description at each interactive should include a verbal description of the interactive’s components and controls, including the touchscreen and pylon with audio pucks (for use by general audience visitors), volume control and tactile navigation buttons.

Area of Impact intro

87/11 New Stories Written, Culture Rediscovered Woodson and his colleagues claimed the right to publish the truth about African Americans’ contributions to the world. They produced dozens of popular books on “peoples of African blood,” many designed for students and young readers. Their work brought Black stories to light.

By making Black history known, Woodson helped instill a new racial pride and identity in African American communities. Generations after him have built on that foundation. In art, music, film, and literature, they document Black stories, celebrate Black achievements, and explore new cultural expressions.

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Media:

EP-04.02-001

Issue Cluster Publishing Independent Content Creation Identity Consciousness Pride

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Media:

Woodson Statement

· Statement from Woodson, delivered by re-enactor or narrator, composed from historical quotes and new script that captures Woodson’s views on independent expression.

[Potential quotes to work in] “Another person, surprised to know how poor I am, says that he thought that I had realized considerable income from books. He did not know that it is a rare thing for a book on the Negro to pay the cost of publishing it.”

“Negroes, as a rule, do not buy books on their race and white people of the country seldom find such productions interesting. For that reason, most publishers refuse to bring out books on the Negro. They are in the business to make money, but we (the Association) undertake the publication of the very works which they refuse, if the authors express a thought to correct error and popularize the whole truth. We have no desire to make money. We seek merely the opportunity to serve humanity.” —Woodson, 1933[footnoteRef:4] [4: Dagbovie, P. G. (2017). “(Re)introducing Foundational African American Historical Thought to a 21st-Century Readership,” The Journal of African American History 102, no. 2 (Spring): p. 232.]

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Media:

Influences How Woodson Learned

1: Early Black history book authors were a significant influence on young Woodson. He read and absorbed their ideas. Through books like these, Woodson learned an author could connect everyday people to their history and reveal otherwise untold or ignored stories.

· Selected to feature: James W. C. Pennington, George Washington Williams, Leila Amos Pendleton, William C. Nell. Woodson praised William Cooper Nell and William Wells Brown in The Negro in Our History. Woodson wrote, “Up to the time of George Washington Williams, Brown had done more than any other writer to popularize Negro history.”

· Assets: book covers of volumes written by above authors, interior illustrations, portraits of the authors, general images of a young Black man reading, ca 1880s

· Quote: “Oh! For a Negro pen to record the lives of our great men and women! I would not circumscribe the fields of learning nor rob the white children of their pride of lineage; but I would teach Negro children the glorious deeds of Negro men and women FIRST.” – Excerpt from Charles Victor Roman’s 1911 oratory, which Woodson published in his Negro Orators and Their Orations.[footnoteRef:5] [5: Qtd in Rayford Logan, “Mirror and Molder,” Journal of Negro History, Vol 58, No. 1, January 1973, pg 8]

2: The free Black press (newspapers and journalists) laid a foundation for Woodson’s own Associated Publishers. Early Black papers and journalists and editors who wrote for Black audiences showed Woodson the power and role of mass communication outlets and knowledge sharing in the Black community.

· Selected to feature: Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass

· Assets: front pages, headlines, illustrations from papers; Wells and Douglass portraits

· Woodson wrote the following about the Black press: “Among the persons thus expressing themselves honorable mention should be given to John B. Russwurm, Charles B. Ray, and Samuel Cornish. These were the pioneers in the development of the Negro press.” He featured an image of Freedom’s Journal in his book.

· Woodson said the following about the Black press in The Negro in Our History: “A large share of praise for developments favorable to Negroes belongs to the press. Without the aid of the Negro newspaper this program of publishing to the world the grievances of the race could not have been carried out.”

· Black newspapers that continued the tradition and were founded in the late nineteenth/early 20th century newspapers, Baltimore Afro American, The Washington Bee, Pittsburgh Courier, and The Chicago Defender

· Add the Negro World, UNIA’s paper, where Woodson first published the essays that finally became The Mis-Education of the Negro.

3: Woodson traveled extensively, his whole life, over the whole world. This helped him understand how other cultures outside America exercised self-determination, valued and passed on their history, viewed themselves, and viewed people of African descent. These new perspectives helped broaden Woodson’s understanding of the role of Africa and its people in the world.

· Selected to feature: Woodson’s own travels

· Assets: images, paperwork related to his time in the Philippines and other destinations, particularly Africa, photo of ASALH’s Gloria retracing Woodson’s steps (reading Mis-Education in Paris)

· References: ID767 Rayford Logan’s “Mirror and Molder” for details on Woodson’s travels, schooling, language capabilities

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Media:

Banner Carriers Who came next

1: Museums like the National Museum of African American History and Culture today carry on Woodson’s work by shouldering a double importance as both repositories of Black history and as sites of celebration of Black achievements.

· Selected to feature: NMAAHC (Lonnie Bunch, also in Rays of Light), NCRM (Toni Freeman), The Legacy Museum (lynching museum and memorial, Montgomery), Wright Museum, DuSable Museum (Margaret Burroughs) [Note: HBCU Museums highlighted in 04.07 History Saved]

· Assets: images and interviews with museum directors, spotlights on key objects (especially those that interpret Dr. Woodson or his achievements)

· John Lewis quote at opening of NMAAHC on Woodson’s influence: “When I was a little child growing up in rural Alabama, a short walk to the cotton fields, but hundreds of miles from the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial, my teachers would tell us to cut out photographs of great African Americans for Carter G. Woodson's Negro History Week, now called African American History month. I became inspired by the stories of George Washington Carver, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and so many others whose life and work will be enshrined in this museum. As these doors open, it is my hope that each and every person who visits this beautiful museum will walk away deeply inspired--filled with a greater respect for the dignity and worth of every human being and a stronger commitment to the ideals of justice, equality and a true democracy.”[footnoteRef:6] [6: https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/read-john-lewis-powerful-speech-opening-the-national-african-american-museum/U2U5U5d6IkspjFwdlqan7I/]

· Reference: Woodson Regional Library’s Vivian Harsh collection, the largest collection of African American history and literature in the Midwest[footnoteRef:7] [7: https://www.chipublib.org/vivian-g-harsh-research-collection/]

· Reference: The Public Historian, Vol 40, Number 3, August 2018, “The State of Black Museums”[footnoteRef:8] [8: https://tph.ucpress.edu/content/40/3]

2: Today’s Black publishers and content creators carry on toward the goal of bringing Black history to the masses. Through technologies new and old, Black authors provide a platform for diverse voices to speak for their community, about their community.

· Selected to feature:

· Publishers, examples like Africa World Press, Carolina Academic Press, African American Images, Third World Press, Black Classic Press

· Podcasters, examples like The Stoop, Noire Histoir, Historically Black (NMAAHC and WaPo), Genealogy’s African Roots Podcast, KUT: In Black America

· Assets: podcast clips, interviews with creators, covers of the books that the Black public intellectuals have published, interviews with individuals from one of these presses

3: Hip Hop and History – Between the late 1980s and early 2000s, a new cultural consciousness movement took shape, celebrating African heritage and Black pride. A major facet of the movement was the resurgence of culturally and socially conscious hip hop. Through music, artists directly sampled themes and ideas on which Woodson also worked, helping them speak to a new generation of African Americans,

· Selected to feature: KRS-One ("You must learn” track) and Lauryn Hill who named her 1999 Grammy-winning album The Mis-Education of Lauryn Hill directly for Woodson’s most famous book. Secondary possibilities: X Clan, Jungle Brothers, Brand Nubians, Public Enemy.

· Assets: Interviews, audio and music video clips, imagery and iconography of hip hop culture late 1980s-2000s.

· Reference: “The History of Hip Hop”, The Journal of African American History 90, no. 3 (Summer) and MESSAGE IN THE MUSIC: Hip Hop, History, and Pedagogy (ASALH Press, 2010), edited by Derrick P. Alridge, James B. Stewart, and V. P. Franklin.

4: Black Pride - Woodson endeavored to instill pride in the Black community by documenting the depth and breadth of its people, history and art, including connections to Africa and the African diaspora. By the 1960s, a full-blown movement toward Black cultural consciousness, based on this same philosophy, was in full swing: Black Pride. Visual artists in particular introduced new themes of ancestry, African culture and Black history into their work, thereby introducing a new Black visual identity to the world.

· Selected to feature: Black artists who reference history and African culture specifically, eg artists within the Black Arts Movement and AfriCOBRA

· Jacob Lawrence: “These orators would tell their stories with pride, drama, and great passion, and I would listen in awe and excitement. These were heroes to whom I could relate. I was inspired and motivated to tell these stories in paint—in a serious form. My first subject was Toussaint Louverture, a very brave and brilliant leader who defeated those who would enslave him, and in so doing deny him and others equality, justice, and fraternity.”- Artist Jacob Lawrence on street corner orators he heard growing up, who gave him inspiration for a series of prints on the life of revolutionary Toussaint Louverture.[footnoteRef:9] [9: https://www.culturetype.com/2019/02/14/dc-moore-gallery-is-showing-jacob-lawrence-series-documenting-life-of-haitian-revolutionary-toussaint-louverture/

· Lois Mailou Jones, revisit Jones’s career with Woodson, contributions to Associated Publishers’ products and later themes and subjects. (Note: Jones is also highlighted in 02 Introduction)

· Carolyn Lawrence

· Gerald Williams

· Elizabeth Catlett

· Barbara Jones-Hogu

· Alma Thomas

· Samella Lewis

· Gordon Parks (photographer)

· Assets: Representative imagery of artists listed above, that best showcase historic themes

· References: see Smart Museum’s exhibition “The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side 1960-1980”[footnoteRef:10] [10: Reference exhibit: “The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side 1960-1980,” Smart Museum of Art. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/arts/design/smart-museum-chicago-Black-artists.html, https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/exhibitions/the-time-is-now-art-worlds-of-chicagos-south-side/

5: Documentary Filmmakers bring together artistry, history, biography and storytelling using the medium of film. Tackling topics as broad as the civil rights movement and as pressing as police violence, Black documentarians have exercised directorial control over their narrative to complicate assumptions and share new perspectives on Black history and communities.

· Selected to feature: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stanley Nelson, Henry Hampton (Eyes on the Prize), Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, Higher Ground (Obamas’ production Company)

· Assets: Film clips, director interviews, awards won 6: Black-produced Television: WHUT is the first TV station at an HBCU [established in 1980]. It is also the only licensed HBCU PBS television station.

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Media:

EP-04.02-001

Concluding poll question(s)

· What was Woodson’s most popular book?

· What was the first major, scholarly African American history textbook? (Hint: Dr. Woodson wrote it)

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Essential questions with visitor response How does history help you know who you are?

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Caption Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998), “Mère du Senegal,” 1985 As a young artist, Jones worked for Woodson, providing illustrations for dozens of his publications. Her art gave visual form to Woodson’s writing on the value of African heritage. She explored that theme for the rest of her career, infusing African, Haitian, and tribal influences into her work.

© LOIS MAILOU JONES PIERRE-NOEL TRUST

ID972 Mere du Senegal as image

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Caption Black History Month Air Force 1 shoes Carrying words from Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro, these shoes honor Woodson and African American culture and style.[footnoteRef:11] Each pair has unique fabric finishes and engraved lace tips. [11: Dagbovie, Pero. “Willing to Sacrifice: Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History, and the Carer G. Woodson Home.” Historic Resource Study, 2012]

THE CARTER G. WOODSON HOME NHS

AO-04.02-115 Nikes

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Caption The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, 1998 Hill’s album sampled directly from Woodson’s classic. Many songs, including the title track, assert the artist’s independence and right to self-determination.[footnoteRef:12] [12: On the album title: Jackson: For the album title, she wanted something like The Education of Sonny Carson and we were like, why don’t you make it more self-deprecating, like The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill? People heard it as her opus and what she was, but in hindsight I think it was more about what she aspired to be. And what else is art but the best side of who you are and who you wanna be? (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/inside-the-miseducation-of-lauryn-hill-252219/)]

CE-04.02-003: ID849 Miseducation of Lauryn Hill CD (prop)

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Caption Carter G. Woodson Book Award Winner This National Council for Social Studies award recognizes outstanding books that carry on Woodson’s work to “treat topics related to ethnic minorities and race relations sensitively and accurately.”[footnoteRef:13] [13: https://www.socialstudies.org/awards/woodson/winners]

COURTESY NCSS; THE CARTER G. WOODSON HOME NHS

CE-04.02-001: ID832 Most recent CGW Award winner

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Caption From Slavery to Freedom, 10th edition First published in 1947, this book has become the definitive text for students of African American history. The book has sold over 3 million copies and is credited with helping make Black Studies an academic discipline.[footnoteRef:14] [14: Franklin Research Center, Duke University, https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2015/03/06/abcs-john-hope-franklin-f-slavery-freedom/]

CE-04.02-002: ID986 From Slavery to Freedom, 10th edition

04.02 STORIES AND CULTURE

Non-media:

Prompt for interactive at audio pylon (same at each pylon) Listen with a puck or plug in headphones Navigate with this bar or the touchscreen

Area of Impact intro

75/12.5

Education Expanded An early career as a teacher gave Woodson an enduring respect for Black educators and schools. Woodson continued to work with teachers to shape what the nation’s schools taught about African Americans.

Especially through the Negro History Week celebration he founded, Woodson helped teachers bring truthful, prideful Black history to countless students. The seed Woodson planted in classrooms helped demonstrate the value, breadth, and depth of Black Studies—today a recognized pillar of American history.

Quote

“Our history deserves recognition every day because Black history is America’s history. Dr. Woodson recognized that generations of African Americans have strengthened our country by urging reforms and breaking down barriers.”

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, 2019[footnoteRef:15] [15: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/432021-Black-history-is-americas-history]

04.03 EDUCATION

Non-media:

Quote “It was the direction of the Board of Education of the State of Louisiana, which was all white, that every teacher have a written outline, and that outline should be displayed openly. [My teacher Ms. McGee] had her outline as directed, but she also had a copy of Carter G. Woodson’s The Negro in Our History, and she had that in her lap, and she read to us from that book.

When the principal would come in, she would just simply lift her eyes to the outline that resided on her desk and teach us from the outline. When the principal disappeared, her eyes went back to the book in her lap.”

- Reverend Jerry Moore, 2008[footnoteRef:16] [16: ID903, video clip: 2008_JerryMoore_2008.mp4 provided by ASALH]

04.03 EDUCATION

Non-media:

Caption header

Caption credit

@nina@howardrevis.com tagging to see if you've gotten to this area yet Comment by Nina Reck: I haven't, but if it's on a panel I set up I will add it Comment by Elizabeth Eubank: Yes, is part of the background graphic

THE CARTER G. WOODSON HOME NHS

[first publication dates:]

Negro in Our History, 1922

From Slavery to Freedom, 1947

Before the Mayflower, 1962

The Negro in the Making of America, 1964

The African-American Odyssey, 1999

Black History 365, 2020

ID835

ID836

ID837

ID838

ID839

EP-04.03-001

Issue Cluster Equal Access Changing What’s Taught Black Studies

04.03 EDUCATION

Media:

EP-04.03-001

Woodson Statement

· Statement from Woodson, delivered by re-enactor or narrator, composed from historical quotes and new script that captures Woodson’s views on education and inclusion of Black history in school curricula and teaching materials.

[possible quotes] “This man standing almost alone, has virtually compelled the people of the United States at least once a year to recognize the fact that a tenth of their population… has developed a history worth knowing…. Negro History Week… tries to bring these facts to the attention of the American people; to the attention of Negroes themselves to let them know that despite the silences and omissions and the distortions of history, Negroes in America have done a remarkable job in the personalities which they have given to the nation, in the contributions which they have made to the nation’s culture, into the expressions which they have contributed to American art.”- W.E.B. DuBois on Woodson, February 1949[footnoteRef:17] [17: https://www.aaihs.org/w-e-b-du-bois-and-Black-history-month/

04.03 EDUCATION

Media:

EP-04.03-001

Influences

How Woodson Learned

· 1: Early African American Teachers - Teachers who published textbooks Woodson read growing up include Edward A. Johnson, who wrote a children's textbook entitled A School History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1890. Historians of early African American history who influenced Woodson include most notably George Washington Williams. (Would like to identify teachers he had personally, if possible.)

· Selected to feature:

· Assets: photos of Black schools, students, teachers, classrooms; teaching materials, textbooks

· Reference: See Rayford Logan’s “Mirror and Molder” article for details about Woodson’s schooling

· 2: Woodson’s Mother and Uncles: Woodson’s thirst for education was inspired by his parents (especially his mother) and his uncles John Morton Riddle and James Buchanan Riddle, from whom he took classes

· Selected to feature: Anne Eliza Riddle Woodson, John Morton Riddle and James Buchanan Riddle

· Assets: mother’s portrait, imagery of Black classrooms of the kind Woodson would have attended, images of African American children at work, narrator/interview, images of Woodson as a young student

· 3. USCT Veterans - Woodson also learned from African American Civil War Veterans (beginning with Oliver Jones) whom he knew personally and those whose histories and autobiographies he read. Woodson read books by J.T. Wilson, W.J. Simmons, and George Washington Williams (these books were in the collection of Oliver Jones).

· Selected to feature: Oliver Jones, USCT veterans

· Assets: Images and illustrations of USCT, books written about USCT

· Reference: Direct quotes from Woodson on learning from Civil War veterans. Woodson’s later writings on the Civil War.

· 4. Educator Colleagues: DC Schoolteachers - Woodson also spent a large part of his career as a part of a community of Black educators (he taught at Douglass High School, Armstrong Manual Training School, M Street High School – later Dunbar High School - and was dean of Howard University’s School of Liberal Arts, dean of West Virginia Collegiate Institute.) Even after he left the classroom as a teacher, he worked with these local teachers, many of them women, to integrate Black history into their teaching. He made the Office Home a “free reference bureau” to provide resources they used in the field.

· Selected to feature: Nannie Helen Burroughs, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. Albert N. D. Brooks (teacher and principal at Shaw School, Banneker and Garnet-Paterson and secretary of ASNLH in the early 1960s)

· Assets: Images of DC schools, students, Black teachers ca 1930s-1940s, writings of Dr. Brooks on Woodson, interview with Dr. Higginbotham (Dr. Brooks’ daughter), examples of classroom resources they prompted Woodson to develop, images of NHW celebrations and materials

04.03 EDUCATION

Media:

EP-04.03-001

Banner Carriers

Who Came Next

1: ASALH, educators and the transition from Negro History Week to a global month-long celebration. Since Dr. Woodson and ASALH founded it in 1926, Black History Week (later Month) has been celebrated annually. In 1976, as part of the US Bicentennial Celebration, Negro History Week became Black History Month through a presidential proclamation. Since then, the ASALH has taken the lead in establishing annual themes for Black History Month (ASALH leadership approached the President of U.S. to begin providing proclamations acknowledging BHM to include the theme). Throughout the nation, there are celebrations, events, etc. and many K-12 schools recognize the contributions of African Americans during this month. The Annual ASALH Black History Month Luncheon is also an important tradition.

· Selected to feature: ASALH members, leadership, award winners

· BHM abroad: Scotland and Paris as examples

· Assets: Range of posters, resources, handouts, mailers, even USPS stamp collection relating to Black History Month. Interviews with those who run programs and events, event and celebration footage. Interviews with ASALH on selection of the theme. Footage of presidential decree. Footage and imagery of BHM in museums, cultural festivals, film fests, other venues

· References: Educators/scholars who have written about how Black History Month is treated in schools. See essay LaGarrett J. King and Keffrelyn Brown, “Once a Year to Be Black: Fighting Against Typical Black History Month Pedagogies,” The Negro Educational Review 65 (2014). They offer solid recommendations for effectual Black History Month activities in K-12 schools.

2: Today’s schools, starting with Philadelphia, which was among the first to adopt new mandates for teaching African American history in secondary education. Highlight continuing debates over teaching of African American history in the K-12 educational system in the United States. Feature Washington, DC-area schools including teacher education programs by ASALH

· Selected to feature:

· Philadelphia schools, then focus on DMV-area schools,

· Teachers and ASALH teacher education programs. ASALH’s Annual teacher Training uses the standards for the host school system, how to teach the BHM theme for the following year.

· Feature Kiamsha’s school drama and theater projects that teach Black history through plays

· Assets: Classroom footage, clips from plays, interviews with ASALH teacher educators, Kiamsha representatives, educators and students on how they use and learn Black history now

3: Black Studies Depts: In Woodson’s era of segregation and discrimination, HBCU’s not only provided Black students higher education opportunities, they offered Black scholars teaching positions when white schools barred their participation. Several examples include: Lorenzo Johnston Greene (Lincoln University); Luther Porter Jackson (Virginia State); Earl E. Thorpe and Helen G. Edmonds (North Carolina Central University); Rayford W. Logan (Howard University); Benjamin Quarles (Morgan State University.) It was at these, and other HBCU’s, that students were first introduced to Negro History, later Black history, within History Departments.

Following Woodson's death, in the immediate post-Civil Rights era, we witnessed the growth of African American Studies/Black Studies as a multi-discipline in higher education. Most credit Woodson and the ASALH, among others, as one of the pioneering efforts in this regard. In this sense, Woodson was engaged in a proto-Black Studies movement. Woodson is largely considered to be one of the “founding fathers” of the modern Black Studies Movement. He and Du Bois, among others, are often credited with laying the foundations for the post-Civil Rights Movement expansion of Black Studies in the United States. The first Black Studies program, proper, established in the United States was at San Francisco State College in 1968 (highlight Sonia Sanchez and Dr. Leonard Jeffries, who was an ASALH Centennial Ray of Light Honoree in 2015). The first PhD program in Black Studies was founded at Temple University in 1987. There are currently approximately 20 PhD programs in African American Studies.

· Selected to feature:

· Begin with role of HBCU’s in Black higher education and teaching Black history (along with hiring Black professors),

· Highlight Maulana Karenga (formerly Ron Karenga), founder of Pan-African and the African American holiday of Kwanzaa(an African American professor of Africana studies, activist and author): In 1966, Maulana Karenga created the celebration of Kwanzaa. This is now considered to be an African American holiday. One could also call Black History Month, a byproduct of Woodson’s Negro History Week, an African American holiday or, perhaps more fittingly, a Black celebration. Woodson took great pride in African history and culture. Karenga, with his US Organization and Kwanzaa, also took great pride in “traditional” African history and culture and often sampled from it to create his various philosophies and worldviews.

· Highlight San Francisco State University, Dr. Sonia Sanchez and Dr. Jeffries

· John Blassingame, Yale University (his role in ASALH) and Dr. Evelyn Higginbotham, who served as chair of the department from which Dr. Woodson received his PhD.

· Conclude with acknowledgement of Black Studies departments now nationwide

· Assets:

· Interviews with Dr. Sanchez or other department heads, footage of classroom debates, map of all programs in the US now

· History of protest from which the SFSU program emerged[footnoteRef:18] [18: https://africana.sfsu.edu/content/history]

· SFSU students today commenting on how Africana Studies has influenced and shaped them (video)[footnoteRef:19] [19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=157&v=8hMPBKqT_Tc&feature=emb_logo]

· Agents of Change (film): This documentary tells the timely and inspiring story of how successful protests for equity and inclusion led to establishing the first Black and Ethnic Studies departments at two very different universities: San Francisco State (1968) and Cornell (1969).[footnoteRef:20] [20: https://films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=168507&r=P]

· Statistics on numbers of Black PhD’s in the nation today: In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a Ph.D. in history. By the 1940s, there were a handful (about a dozen). Since the Civil Rights era, the numbers of African Americans earning PhDs in history has grown exponentially.

4. Education vs. Incarceration[footnoteRef:21] This section spotlights initiatives that use mentoring, educational services, and degree programs (before and during incarceration) to close the scholastic achievement gap facing Black students, provide professional opportunities, and ultimately create alternatives to delinquency. [21: Note: this section was previously called Black History in Prison, but selected groups to feature are more accurately about using education as a means to avoid or leave prison, not solely the study of Black History while incarcerated - though portions of the programs below do include Black History in curricula).]

· Kiamsha’s Pen or Pencil program that seeks to change young people’s path before they are incarcerated – the school to prison pipeline. “For some students, academic failure produces frustration and poor study habits. This, in turn, can initiate a chain of events that lead to a withdrawal from and rejection of participation in classroom activities, prompting some youths to become disruptive in class or even drop out of school. If left unchecked, this behavior can eventually lead to delinquency and other serious problem behaviors…. POP™ feels all youth should be cognizant of the contribution of African Americans to American history, but in presenting a cultural based mentoring methodology, promotes consciousness-raising, skill-building and leadership development of Black youth…. While preparing mentees for broader adult responsibilities, POP™ integrates the resilience, youth leadership, self-determination, and lessons learned from little and well-known persons and stories of civil rights and Underground Railroad history as a caveat to ethnic identity and transformational intervention.”[footnoteRef:22] [22: http://www.penorpencilmovement.org/media/POP%20FACT%20SHEET%20(Autosaved).pdf]

· Interview candidate: Dr. Cheryl Grills (President of the Association of Black Psychologists). Kiamsha was the coordinator in the Washington Metro area and was the only POP group in the US at the time. There were two juvenile facilities, Cheltenham and Waxter in Prince George’s County. John Whitting Franklin was a speaker at Cheltenham.

· Research of Elsa Hardy

· Bard Prison Initiative: “The Bard Prison Initiative extends the full breadth and depth of the Bard College liberal arts curriculum into six New York State prisons. BPI creates and protects academic spaces where students and faculty engage in ambitious college coursework, challenge one another intellectually, and build supportive community. Students undergo a selective admission process, enroll full-time in the same courses that they would on Bard’s main campus, are held to the same high standards as all Bard College students, and graduate with Bard College degrees. BPI students discover new strengths and direction that often fundamentally alter their relationship to themselves, their communities, and the world in which we live.”[footnoteRef:23] [23: https://bpi.bard.edu/our-work/the-college/]

· Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative, specifically the Prison Scholars Program that offers incarcerated men and women workshops, credit-bearing and non-credit courses in government, philosophy, English, debate and music, taught by Georgetown professors.[footnoteRef:24] [24: https://prisonsandjustice.georgetown.edu/programs/s81` 23cholarsprogram/]

· Assets: imagery, footage and interviews relating to programs, content, participants, spotlight on graduates, data on effectiveness and recidivism

· ID957: Audio clips from Mary McLeod Bethune’s grandsons, Hobson and Robert, on Black history in prisons, 2006

04.03 EDUCATION

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EP-04.03-001

Concluding poll question(s) Were Black Studies part of your education?

Has your school ever celebrated Black History Month?

04.03 EDUCATION

Non-media:

What did you learn about Black history in school?

78/11.3 ASALH’s Black History Month Woodson and the Association (now known as ASALH) first founded Negro History Week in 1926. Later it was known as Black History Week. As part of the 1976 US Bicentennial Celebration, a presidential proclamation created today’s Black History Month. Each year, ASALH names a theme and provides learning materials to people worldwide.

Yet Woodson’s ambition for Black History Month went even further. He envisioned Black history education year-round, fully integrated into schools’ curricula, teaching students that Black history is world history.

04.03 EDUCATION

Non-media:

Caption Black history celebration materials

COURTESY MOORLAND-SPINGARN RESEARCH CENTER, HOWARD UNIVERSITY / © ASALH

ID222 1952 newspaper ID589 1975 BHW flyer ID592 1976 Black History Month Bicentennial booklet ID189 1984 Black History Month Poster

04.03 EDUCATION

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Call out This year’s Black History Month

04.03 EDUCATION

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Captions [Captions for most recent BHM theme poster and teaching materials, to be selected by ASALH closer to exhibit installation. Content can be about the specific theme selected for the year, teaching materials distributed, etc]

04.04 RIGHTS

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Area of Impact intro

74/10.8 Rights Demanded Woodson was a scholar-activist who used history to confront injustices in his time. He saw the Association as a “watchman on the wall,” ready to correct the falsehoods on which racism relied.

Woodson also used the press as a tool for change. In countless columns and editorials, he challenged segregation and insisted on political, legal, and social equity for African Americans. Woodson’s voice lent momentum and substance to a new, growing freedom movement.

04.04 RIGHTS

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Caption

Malcolm X on Afro-American History, 1967 Malcolm X shared Woodson’s philosophy on history. He believed knowledge of the past was essential to one’s knowledge of self and said, “Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research.”

04.04 RIGHTS

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Caption

Protest buttons COURTESY NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY; COURTESY HERITAGE AUCTIONS / HA.COM; SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION; © ASALH ID973 ASNLH Proud American, 1962 (with Woodson’s face) ID940 Teach Children the Truth ID944 Black Student Union ID938 Finish the Fight NAACP ID942 Everybody got a right to live ID941 Black is Beautiful ID939 All power to the people ID945 Ethnic Studies Now ID977 Black Lives Matter at School

04.04 RIGHTS

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Quote “This is a movement for equity, inclusion, and the uplifting of Black students.”

Black Lives Matter at School, 2020

04.04 RIGHTS

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Caption

Black Lives Matter at School emblem BLM at School is a national coalition organizing for racial justice in education. Like Woodson, BLM at School urges educators to forefront Black history in the classroom. Through its annual Week of Action and Year of Purpose initiative, BLM at School provides resources for lessons about structural racism, intersectional Black identities, Black history, and anti-racist movements.[footnoteRef:25] [25: https://www.Blacklivesmatteratschool.com/about.html]

© BLACK LIVES MATTER AT SCHOOL / CARYN DAVIDSON

04.04 RIGHTS

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Issue Cluster

Civil Rights Legal Justice Self-determination Equal Access to Society

04.04 RIGHTS

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Woodson Statement

· Statement from Woodson, delivered by re-enactor or narrator, composed from historical quotes and new script that captures Woodson’s views on education and inclusion of Black history in school curricula and teaching materials.

[possible quotes to work in]

“The whole history of the white race has been cruelty in the extreme, justified by its claim to be the sole representative of God in remaking the world and shaping the destinies of nations…. Violating the law is the prerogative of the white…. In spite of these facts as to superior qualities of the Negro, the average white man is of the opinion that the Negro has a feeling of inferiority in his presence. Nothing can be so far from the truth.” – Woodson, The Case of the Negro, 1921[footnoteRef:26] [26: Qtd in "Among the vitalizing tools of the radical intelligentsia, of course the most crucial was words": Carter G. Woodson's "The Case of the Negro" (1921), PERO GAGLO DAGBOVIE. Journal for the Study of Radicalism Vol. 3, No. 2 (FALL 2009), pp. 81-112

04.04 RIGHTS

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Influences

How Woodson learned

Woodson’s understanding of civil rights was not the product of a single source or influence. Like all of us, he came of age in a larger and multifaceted context of “his times.” Woodson grew up in the middle of what his protégé Rayford Logan dubbed the “nadir” – or lowest point – of race relations in the United States. As a young man, Woodson witnessed the entrenchment of segregation, disenfranchisement of people of color, and institutionalized racism we call Jim Crow. He nonetheless had numerous examples of individuals and organizations working in myriad ways against injustice and for the benefit of the Black community (Note: content team determined this influence category would be one consolidated piece, emphasizing the larger milieu in which Woodson grew up as opposed to separate, specific influences)

· Woodson’s father, James Henry Woodson, was central in instilling within him activist sentiments. John Henry Woodson taught his children to be polite to everyone but to insist always on recognition as human beings—and if necessary, to fight to the limit for it. His father commanded his children to never accept insults from whites, compromise their principles, mislead fellow men, or betray their people.[footnoteRef:27] In 1932 in the Chicago Defender and the New York Age, Woodson recounted the notions of self-sufficiency, dignity, and elementary Black nationalism that he learned from his father. Foreshadowing Malcolm X’s famous 1963 celebration of the “field Negro,” Woodson asserted: “From my father . . . I learned better . . . He had been a field slave and could neither read nor write, but he proved to be the greatest factor in my education . . . This former slave, an illiterate man, taught me that you do not have to wait until you die to think of losing your soul. He insisted that when you learn to accept insult, to compromise on principle, to mislead your people, you have lost your soul . . . He taught his children to be polite to everybody but to insist always on recognition as human beings; and, if necessary, fight to the limit for it. Do not do for the traducer of the race anything he will not do for you. Do not curry his horse, and grin at him for a favor. Do not brush his hat with one hand while holding the other for a tip. Do not clean his spittoons for the pittance which he offers. Do not serve in his kitchen for the refuse from his table. Do not shine his shoes to get the wornout ones for yourself . . . He often said to me, “I had to do these things when I was a slave. If I continue to do them, I am not a free man. If you do these things you cannot look the oppressor in the eye and say, ‘Sir, I am your equal.’ Neither he nor you will believe it.” [27: Jacqueline Goggins, via ASALH: CAWO_Request List_20200402 FINAL update 04052020]

· Frederick Douglass’ impact on Woodson’s concept of human rights, civil rights.

· By the time of Woodson’s birth, Frederick Douglass was already a giant in the Black community. Woodson not only came of age learning about Douglass’s self-emancipation, abolitionist movement, war-time efforts, and post-war work for social reform, he would have recognized parallels to Douglass’s early years as a laborer, self-directed education, and lifelong commitment to uncovering truths about African Americans in America’s history (eg Douglass’s 1852 “Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro”). Woodson studied and celebrated Douglass, and would later echo Douglass in writing about independent thought in his most famous and controversial work, The Mis-Education of the Negro.

· Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1849: “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man.”[footnoteRef:28] [28: https://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.25385/?sp=117&st=text]

· Woodson, Mis-Education of the Negro, 1933: "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it.”

· In his textbook, The Negro in Our History, Woodson referenced Douglass directly

· Over the course of his own career, Woodson honored Douglass many times through articles and features on Douglass in The Negro History Bulletin, Journal of Negro History, and on Negro History Month materials. (See ID 584). Woodson collected and archived Douglass’s writings here at the Office Home.

· Woodson also recognized the key role Douglass’s home, as a historic site, plays as a site of pilgrimage, commemoration and remembrance to not only the individual but the movement Douglass created for others to carry on.

· Reference Woodson participation at Douglass home ceremony (story Vince provided)

· NAACP’s impact on Woodson’s concept of human rights, civil rights, methods of protest

· Woodson’s awareness of NAACP as a protest organization, among the largest and earliest in the nation of its kind

· NAACP anti-lynching march in which Woodson participated

· Woodson breaking ties with NAACP over his differing views of activism: Woodson critiqued the DC chapter of the NAACP. Before he embarked on his own career in communications and publishing, Woodson wrote to chairman Archibald Grimke in 1915 that the branch should have an office where people could record concerns or receive information, and that the NAACP actively canvas for increased subscriptions to its magazine the Crisis. (His suggestions were ignored)

· Woodson then wrote: “I am not afraid of being sued by white businessmen. In fact, I should welcome such a law suit. It would do the cause much good. Let us banish fear. We have been in this mental state for three centuries. I am a radical. I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me.”

· Woodson directly referenced many others freedom fighters and civil rights leaders in Negro in Our History: Among them are Prince Hall, Richard Allen, Henry Highland Garnett, Charles Lenox Remond (of him Woodson wrote, “Until the rise of Frederick Douglass he was probably the ablest representative of the Negro race”), Richard T. Greener, John M. Langston, James Weldon Johnson. A photo of Frederick Douglass appears next to the title page in this book, revealing, perhaps, how much Woodson respecting him.

· Tuskegee Institute: Booker T. Washington - Washington was one of the most influential Black institution-builders during the era of Jim Crow segregation. Woodson admired Booker T. Washington. In The Negro in Our History, Woodson called Washington "a Negro with a new idea." He respected his "bold advocacy of industrial education"; he viewed Washington's educational program as being practical; he agreed with Washington's criticism that many Blacks who left the South during the Great Migration might have been shortsighted in their vision of what the North entailed for African Americans; and he embraced Washington's creation of Black institutions. While Woodson believed that Washington fell prey to "certain entanglements in which he of necessity had to make some blunders," he understood his shrewd politics and economic approach. He seemed to have understood the historical contexts that shaped Washington's worldview. Woodson, unlike most Black historians during his times and after him, did not extensively critique Washington for his so-called approach of "compromise" and "accommodation." Woodson also remarked that Washington was "the greatest of all Americans, the only man in the Western Hemisphere who has succeeded in effecting a revolution in education." He was especially impressed by Washington's ability to make education practical "for the masses of the people who had to toil." I think that Woodson, whose parents were once enslaved, could also relate to Washington's rise "up from slavery." Both of their lives were full of obstacles and they both persevered over poverty and they both, as leaders, were critical of "highly educated Negroes." Both were natives of Virginia.

· W.E.B. DuBois: Woodson and DuBois had conflicts and DuBois wrote a scathing obituary of Woodson. Woodson did, however, give DuBois credit for his activism.

· Assets: Anthony Robinson, (see Rays of Light clip, calls Woodson intellectual inspiration for Black Power)

04.04 RIGHTS

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EP-04.04-001

Banner Carriers

Who came next

1: Scholar Activists – Those who refer to history as part of their agenda:

· Selected to feature:

· Malcolm X, who studied with historian John Henrik Clarke (recipient of ASALH’s Woodson Scholars Medallion) wrote and spoke about African American history. In 1967, a book with his thoughts on Black history was published, Malcolm X on Afro-American History. Malcolm’s philosophy of history was very much like Woodson’s. He believed that knowledge of the past was essential for identify and self-knowledge.

· Today’s Scholar Activists who use history as a point of departure for their analyses: Michael Eric Dyson, Peniel Joseph, Britney Cooper, Ibram X. Kendi, Nicole Hannah Jones, Jelani Cobb, Greg Carr, Ta-Nehisi Coats, Angela Davis (reference Black Panther Party participation)

2: Black Lives Matter

· Selected to feature: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza

· Assets: Interviews with Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza. Protest footage, protest sign, banner or buttons as artifacts, mission statement write large (creating a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic, and political power to thrive[footnoteRef:29]) [29: https://Blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/]

3: Lawyers who are trained in history to help fight unjust laws –

· Selected to feature: Judge Nathaniel Jones, Judge Leon Higginbotham, Judge Raymond Pace Alexander,[footnoteRef:30] Charles Hamilton Houston, Constance Baker Motley [30: See ID826, Judge Pace on Woodson’s legacy in: Negro History Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 8, SPECIAL SUMMER ISSUE (May, 1965), pp. 180-186, 192]

· Assets:

· Judge…