Mapping the Intellectual Genealogy of Carter Godwin Woodson

• In Event: Liberation and Education: Historical Perspectives on Black Educational Thought

Abstract

Purpose: This paper discusses two aspects of Carter G. Woodson’s work: (1) his lifelong, scientific mission to locate, to reconstruct, and to reinscribe Black history and heritage knowledge, and (2) the specific ways that his work (research, writing, teaching, publishing, and institution-building) has shaped (and continues to shape) the fields of history and education.
Modes of inquiry and data sources: The paper’s historical excavation locates Woodson in time and space by discussing his early life influences (including his international travel) and by connecting him to his “co-conspirators”—other lesser-known intellectual workers who labored with him to investigate Black people’s experience in Africa and the Americas. It traces his development by mining the voluminous bodies of scholarship both by Woodson and on Woodson.
Conclusions: Woodson’s life experiences helped to activate his unwavering commitment to locating, uncovering, and reinscribing the lost/found knowledge of people of African ancestry.
Significance: Woodson’s work remains a durable and necessary formation that calls for committed and consistent interrogation and integration of not only Black history but Blacks in history.

Author

• Lasana D. Kazembe, Indiana University - Indianapolis