Table of Contents...Introduction Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure

Table of Contents

Introduction ………………………………………………………………. 1

Carter, Christine P. ………………………………………………………. 2

Carter, Cordelia …………………………………………………………….. 3

Carter, Elmer A. ………………………………………………………….. 4

Carter, Reverend Paul G. ………………………………………………… 5

Copes Johnson, Pauline …………………………………………………….. 6

Fletcher Sr., Merritt W. …………………………………………………….. 7

Griffin, Gloria ………………………………………………………………. 8

Hardy, Charles R. …………………………………………………………… 9

Hardy, Eleanor Irvin …………………………………….……………….. 10

Holland, Jerome H. “Brud" ………………………………………………. 11

Humphrey Jr., Reverend John C. …….………………...………………… 12

Jackson, William W. ….…………………………………………………. 13

McLeod, Sean ……………………………………………………………. 14

Murray, Bishop William …………………………………………………. 15

Post, Dale ………………………………………………………………… 16

Richardson, Cynthia Jane ………………………………………………… 17

Richardson, Frederick N. …………………………………………………… 18

Richardson, Joy ……………………………………..……………………. 19

Tubman, Harriet ………………………………….………………………. 20

Walker, Leslie ……………………………….…………………………… 21

Webber-McLeod, Gwendolyn ……………….…………………………… 22

Whitaker, Alberta ………………………………………………………… 23

Introduction Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure and make the most out of one’s divine right of freedom. Although he did not begin his formal education until he was 20 years old, his dedication to study enabled him to earn a high school diploma in West Virginia and bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago in just a few years. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University (the first was W. E. B. DuBois). Applying the insights he gained during his academic matriculation, Dr. Woodson began teaching black students in the District of Columbia’s public schools and at Howard University. Dr. Woodson was the founder and first editor of the Journal of Negro History which was the first American black historical research journal in 1921. He also organized Associated Publisher in order to produce black textbooks and other printed materials on black subjects which were not readily accepted by most publishers. In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February, and today Black History Month garners support throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social backgrounds discuss the black experience. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on Febuary 12th, 1909. It is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, campaigning for equal opportunity and conducting voter mobilization. Our Mission is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.

In celebration of African American History Month, the Education Department of the Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the New York State Conference of the NAACP salutes 22 distinguished African Americans in Auburn who have made significant contributions to Auburn and Cayuga County. We call these men and women Auburn Trailblazers. The men and women featured as Trailblazers offer powerful examples of individuals who refused to be defined by their circumstances. Their biographies are a testament to the determination and perseverance displayed by extraordinary people during challenging times. Through education and advocacy, these individuals demonstrate how African Americans have actively campaigned for better lives for themselves and their people.

The 2011 African American Trailblazers in Auburn Manual is being distributed to all Cayuga County Schools as a learning tool for teachers to share and encourage young scholars to continue to learn about the rich and diverse history of African Americans in Auburn. A more extensive biography of each Trailblazer will be displayed in the local Branch website. (www.auburncayuganaacp.org). Enjoy this manual and share it so that our men and women can be recognized for their hard work.

Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the

NAACP

P.O. Box 964 Auburn, New York 13021

Ph: (315) 253-5472

Email: [email protected] Website: www.auburncayuganaacp.org

Meets every third Wednesday of the Month at the Westminster Presbyterian Church

2011-2013 Executive Committee

President Vice President Eliezer Hernández Gwen Jones Secretary Assistant Secretary Joseph Leogrande Elisa Carbajal Hunt

Treasurer Pauline Copes-Johnson

Committees

Membership Civic Engagement / Committee Voter Registration

Susan Gibides Florence Smith Education Committee Community Relations Gwen Jones Laurel Ullyette

Youth Council Advisor Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson

Member-At Large Anthony Gero Jack Hardy

Barbara Lamphere Lance Lyons

The Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP Salutes…

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

Produced by the NAACP EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Highlights:

• Consecrated as a Deaconess of the

AME Zion Church in 1983

• First Lady at Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church, Auburn, NY –

1992 – 1997, 2007 - Present

• Tour Coordinator and Docent for the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. in

Auburn NY since 1995

• 2010 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Millennium Award Recipient

Christine P. Carter was born April 20, 1953 in Washington, D.C. She is the oldest girl of nine children. Christine was raised in Washington, D.C., educated in the public school system and went on to complete several vocational and professional education programs. She is currently the Christian Education Director, Sunday School Superintendent, Local Home Missions President, Deaconess of the Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church of Auburn NY and a member of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee of Auburn, NY. Mrs. Carter exemplifies the tenants of Dr. King as she continues to seek opportunities to serve and better the community.




Highlights:

• Studied piano at the New England

Conservatory, while working to support herself

• Recognized for her dedication

and service to the Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church and

participation in the 1976 Bicentennial

• Honored by the Rev. Kealon as

“an ideal mother to her family and a symbol of motherhood in the

church.”

Cordelia Carter was born in 1909 in Tyre, NY and moved to Auburn in the 1920’s. She married Reginald Carter in the 1930’s and had five children. She once stated that music was her whole life. She sang during Red Cross drives in World War I and, supporting herself, studied music at the New England Conservatory in Boston for a year. She couldn’t afford to finish. Mrs. Carter served as church organist and choir director on and off for 50 years and gave piano lessons in her home well into her 70’s. While raising her children, she attended her (All-America) sons’ football games, was active in PTA, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Youth Group and the Booker T. Washington Community Center.




Highlights:

• First Chairman of the New York

State Commission Against discrimination, predecessor to the NY State Division of Human rights

• First Director of the NY State

Division of Human rights

• Special Assistant on Race Relations to Governor Nelson A.

Rockefeller

• A leader in the fight to end racial discrimination

Elmer Anderson Carter was born in Rochester, NY in 1890, son of the Rev. George Cook Carter and Florence Lucretia (Young) Carter. The elder Rev. Carter’s work as the AME Zion Church Pastor brought the family to Auburn, where Elmer attended public schools and then graduated from Harvard University in 1912. He was head of Prairie View State Normal School in Texas for five years before enlisting in the US Army and serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in France as part of the 325th Field Signal Battalion, 92nd Division until his honorable discharge in 1919.




Highlights:

• Founder and Director of the Universal Superstars Corp,

(an organization designed to promote local artists and create visual and performing arts

workshops for youth)

• 2011 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Millennium Award Recipient

• Resident Manager and Program

Director of the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. 1990-Present

• Pastor of Thompson Memorial African

Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of Auburn, 1992-1997, 2007-Present

Reverend Paul Gordon Carter was born January 8, 1952 in Spindale, NC. He was the seventh of nine children of the late Rev. Haru Carter, Sr. and the late Mrs. Pauline Carter. He is married to Christine P. Carter, and has one son. His family moved to Washington, D.C. where he attended the historic Paul Lawrence Dunbar Sr. High (first public school for African Americans in the US), and Western Sr. High (known for the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts). He served four years in the Army before attending Washington International College and the Dale Carnegie Institute for Leadership Training.




Highlights:

• First African American Telephone Operator employed by the New York

Telephone Co. in Auburn


• Great Grandniece of Harriet

Tubman Davis

• Tireless advocate for preserving the legacy of Harriet Tubman

• Current Treasurer of the

Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP

Pauline Copes Johnson, a great grandniece of Harriet Tubman Davis, was born and has lived her entire life in Auburn. A graduate of the Auburn Schools, Pauline was named “Best Female Athlete” by her classmates. She was the first African- American telephone operator employed by the New York Telephone Co. in the Auburn/Cayuga County area. In 2005 Mrs. Johnson was honored to travel with her sister, Geraldine Copes Daniels, to Accra, Ghana, Tubman’s ancestral homeland, to participate in a ceremony to dedicate a statue and rename a street in honor of Harriet Tubman.




Highlights:

• World War II Army Veteran

• 2006 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Millennium Award

Recipient

• President of The Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP 1992-1998,

2004-2007

• Served on the Board of Directors for the Auburn Housing Authority, RSVP, the Schweinfurth

Art Center, and the Booker T. Washington Community Center

Merritt W. Fletcher was born July 29, 1926 and was married to Naomi Fletcher for 58 years until her passing in 2007. They had three sons. Merritt served in the Army during World War II, yet was denied service in a downtown bar after returning home to Auburn. Mr. Fletcher retired from Columbian Rope in 1974, having worked prior to that for John Gavras, US Hoffman, The Seneca Ordinance Depot and Sylvania Electric. He served on the Board of Directors for the Auburn Housing Authority, RSVP, the Schweinfurth Art Center, New York State Electric and Gas Consumers Board, the Booker T. Washington Community Center and the Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP.




Highlights:


• Executive Director of the

Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Program

• New York Department of State

Community Action Lifetime Achievement Award

• United States Department of Justice

Award for Public Service

• Cayuga Branch American Diabetes Association for Community Development

Gloria Richardson Griffin was born in Auburn, NY. She has three children and four grandchildren. Gloria attended Rochester Business Institute, Cayuga Community College, The Executive Development Institute and The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. A champion for the rights of children and economically disadvantaged persons and the betterment of race relations, she is trained to work with children's issues, families in crisis, cultural differences, literacy training, economic development and nonprofit boards. For over 40 years Ms. Griffin was involved in every aspect of the Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency, Inc. (formerly CCAP), starting as a consumer and working her way up to Executive Director, a position she held for over 30 years. She has been an inspiration and mentor to many as she worked her way through the organization and helped make it what it is today.




Highlights:

• Auburn’s First African-American Firefighter, 1947-1977

• Fought for equal rights for African Americans in Auburn, NY

• Distinguished Community Service

includes VFW Post 1975, Auburn Retired Firefighters Association,

NAACP, Lion’s Club, RSVP

• Deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church

• Prince Hall Mason

Charles R. Hardy was a 1934 graduate of Auburn Academic High School. He attended Ithaca College where he studied music, and married Eleanor M. Irvin in 1941. Charles enlisted into the United States Army Signal Corps in October 1942. He was assigned to the Quartermaster Battalion 1515 as a general clerk, serving in the United States and in France. He was honorably discharged in 1946. In 1947 Mr. Hardy became the first African American firefighter in the Auburn Fire Department, Hook & Ladder Company. In spite of scoring between 85-95 on numerous civil service exams, he never received a promotion during his 30-year career, citing discrimination in his complaints to the Municipal Civil Service Commission in Auburn and to the State of New York, Executive Department Commission Against Discrimination.




Highlights:

• Director of the Booker T. Washington Community Center 1942

– 1948

• Chairman of the Auburn Human Rights Commission 1966

• Supervisor, Cayuga County Medicaid Division 1970 – 1979

• Life Member of the NAACP

• “No community can be greater than

its smallest minority, if we believe that no chain is greater than its

weakest link.” ~ Eleanor Irvin Hardy Eleanor Irvin Hardy was born in Johnson City, TN on July 16, 1910. She grew up in Ithaca, NY, graduated from Ithaca High School in 1926 and attended Storer College in Harper's Ferry, WV. She worked as an English and Math teacher at McKenney Training School in McKenney, VA. Upon her return to Ithaca, NY, she graduated from Ithaca College with the class of 1940. In 1941 she married Charles R. Hardy and moved to Auburn, NY. Mrs. Hardy worked as the Director of the Booker T. Washington Community Center throughout World War II.




Highlights:

• First African American to serve on the Board of the New York Stock

Exchange

• One of 3 black freshman entering Cornell University in 1935

• President of Delaware State College from 1953 -1960

• President of Hampton Institute, in Virginia from 1960-1970

• Appointed U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from 1970-1972

• Holland Stadium named in his honor in 1971

Jerome H. “Brud” Holland was born January 9th, 1916 in Auburn NY, one of 10 children of Robert and Viola Bagby Holland. He grew up in a house that stood on the corner of Fitch Ave. and Park Place where Roosevelt Memorial Baptist Church now stands. He was an outstanding high school football player, graduating in 1934 from Auburn Academic High School. He received his B.S. degree in 1937 and M.S. degree in 1941, both from Cornell University. While an undergraduate at Cornell he was chosen All American football end in 1937 and 1938. During WWII, he was Director of Personnel for the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company in Pennsylvania. In 1948 he married Laura Mitchell, whom he met while teaching and coaching at Tennessee State College, and he earned his Ph. D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1950.




Highlights:

• Co-Pastor at Roosevelt Memorial Baptist Church on Fitch Avenue

• A leader in publicizing men’s health issues in Auburn, especially diabetes

and prostate cancer

• 2001 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Millennium Award Recipient

• President of the Auburn/Cayuga

NAACP from 2003 to 2004

• A leader in the Black community and a strong supporter of youth

• Inducted into the Auburn/Cayuga

NAACP “Hall of Fame” in 2011

Reverend John C. Humphrey Jr., was born in Fort Gaines, FL, the eldest of six brothers and five sisters of John C. Humphrey Sr. and Earmell Fryer Humphrey. The family moved to Auburn in 1961. He graduated from West High School. With the assistance of Jerome "Brud" Holland he attended Hampton University in VA. He retired in 2001 after 30 years at New Venture Gear in Syracuse. Rev. Humphrey served for five years as co-pastor, along with his wife at Roosevelt Memorial Baptist Church on Fitch Avenue in Auburn, where among many things, he hosted the annual NAACP gospel gathering, called "Lift Every Voice".




Highlights:

• Started the local branch of the NAACP in both the City of Auburn and

Auburn Correctional Facility

• Served as Regional Director of the NYS Conference of the NAACP in

upstate NY

• Started the Auburn Meals-on-Wheels Program

• William and Helen Jackson

Scholarship Fund established by the NAACP in 1991 to assist minority high school students in Cayuga County

William W. Jackson, born in Virginia in 1907, was a graduate of Virginia State College. Mr. Jackson was married in 1932 to Helen C. Wright, who shared his social concerns and helped him through graduate school by typing his papers. They raised two boys and two girls. In spite of a Bachelor’s Degree and later a Master’s Degree from Boston University, Mr. Jackson held low-paying jobs during the Depression. He taught at an all-black high school, sold insurance, and worked at community centers for the disadvantaged. Mr. Jackson was employed at Booker T. Washington Community Center in 1960. Jackson recalled meeting in St. Peter’s Church the night Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. They held a memorial service that evening.




Highlights:

• President of the Nationally Recognized New York Institute of

Dance & Education

• Corporate Facilitator, reaching For Higher Ground Consulting

• Executive Producer of the New York

Dance Festival

• Artistic Director of the Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre

• Executive Producer of the Carmen

De LaVallade Award for Dance

• Chairman of the Janet Collins Fellowship Selection Committee

Sean McLeod is a native Auburnian who after graduating from Auburn High School attended the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase, and has established himself as a successful consultant and corporate facilitator. Mr. McLeod is an award winning Producer, Artistic Ambassador, American Choreographer, multi faceted Master Teacher, and lecturer who works across the US and internationally. In a career spanning over 20 years, he has lectured, consulted, or taught for countless institutions, touching the lives of more than 25,000 people a year through residencies, leadership training, and workshops and has awarded more than 100 thousand dollars in scholarships and residencies to emerging artists.




Highlights:

• Co-Founded the Annual Citywide Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,

Jr. Celebration

• 2009 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Millennium Award Recipient

• Pastor of the Apostolic Church

of the Lord Jesus Christ

• Bishop Murray on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Any man who marched 200,000 people to

Washington, D.C., and peacefully – I can learn something from that

man”

Bishop Willie Murray was born (1938) in Edison, Georgia, one of 13 children, to the late John and Morell Murray. He married Carolyn J. Young in 1962 after moving to Syracuse, NY in 1956. Bishop Murray became a member of the Apostolic Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, where he was baptized by Bishop Robert W. Jones and began a life of devotion. After attending bible classes, he “received the Holy Ghost” in 1964, became Deacon in 1965, was called to the ministry in 1966 and after a year studying the word, he preached his first ceremony in 1967. Rev. Murray was very active in the church and did street services under the leadership of Bishop Jones who was best known for his backyard and tent revivals that grew into the City Wide Crusade.




Highlights:

• First African-American Teacher for the Auburn City School District

• Named to the Black All-American

Football Team for Xavier University

• President of Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP

• Founder of the Rev. Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr. Millennium Luncheon

• Inducted into the Auburn/Cayuga NAACP “Hall of Fame” in 2010

President Dale Post’s influence on the educational system, civil rights movement, and the entire Auburn community is profound. Dale was the first African-American teacher in the Auburn School District. He was a member of the Auburn Labor Council and became a key person in establishing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for county workers. For years, Dale taught and inspired numerous students who entered his social studies classroom, in addition to mentoring dozens of colleagues and protégés. Even after his retirement, he continued to lobby for issues that helped teachers and students alike. He was instrumental in the effort to provide retired teachers with cost of living adjustments.




Highlights:

• The 2nd African American teacher hired in the Auburn School District,

1970-2006

• Served on the boards of the Auburn Teachers Association, Cayuga-

Onondaga BOCES Teacher Center and Booker T. Washington Community

Center among others

• Deaconess and taught Sunday school at Thompson Memorial AME Zion church

• 2006 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Millennium Award Recipient Cynthia Jane Richardson was born April 16, 1947 in Auburn, New York to Walter Burton and Gertrude Richardson. Cynthia attended Auburn schools, graduating from West High School in 1965 before getting her B.S. in Elementary Education from SUNY Oswego in 1969. She completed graduate work at State University Colleges at Oswego, Cortland and Brockport; Cornell University, Ithaca College and Syracuse University. Ms. Richardson spent her thirty-six year teaching career in the Auburn elementary schools.




Highlights:

• City of Auburn, Police Officer

• Superintendent for the New York State Department of Correctional

Services

• 1990 Key to the City of Auburn, Distinguished Citizen Award Recipient

• 2002 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King,

Jr. Millennium Award Recipient

• Executive Director of the Auburn Human Rights Commission

• AHS Athletic Hall of Fame in baseball,

basketball, football & track

Frederick N. Richardson was born May 31, 1941 to Walter Burton and Gertrude Richardson in Auburn NY. He graduated from West High School and is a member of the Auburn High School Athletic Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in Baseball, Basketball, Football and Track. As a young man he worked with youth as a Recreation Leader and Supervisor at the Booker T. Washington Community Center, as Director and Playground Leader for the City of Auburn, and as Camp Counselor for the YMCA resident camp.




Highlights:

• Member of the Booker T. Washington Community Center

Hall of Fame

• Community of Color Spirit Life Award

• 2001 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther

King, Jr. Millennium Award Recipient

• Educator, mentor, protector and promoter of children and

youth

Joy Marie Richardson was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Auburn, where she graduated from Central High School. She is married to Fred Richardson and they have one daughter. Joy worked for over twenty years at the Booker T. Washington Community Center as a Pre-school Teacher and Youth Leader in the afternoon and evening programs. She was a Sunday school teacher at Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church for many years and has created many youth programs in the community.




Highlights:

• Between 1850 and 1860 Harriet Tubman made several trips to the Eastern Shore of Maryland

bringing away a total of about seventy individuals in approximately 13 trips including her parents, her

3 brothers and other friends and relatives.

• The first woman to lead an armed raid, Tubman led Col. James Montgomery’s

forces up the Combahee River, where they routed rebel forces, freed over 700

slaves, and burned buildings, crops and stockpiles of munitions and food.

• About 1896 she purchased the 25 acre parcel

next to her property on South Street to establish a home and hospital for indigent,

aged, and sick African Americans.

Harriet Tubman was born about 1822 on the Thompson plantation near what is now Madison, MD. As a young child she was separated from her parents and sent to the Brodess plantation where she was hired out to various other masters. Sometime between the ages of 12 and 14 she was struck in the head by an iron weight as she tried to protect another slave. She suffered from serious side effects from that injury for the rest of her life. In her early 20’s she married John Tubman and about five years later she escaped, returning repeatedly to bring others out of slavery. From 1862-1865 Tubman worked as a cook, nurse, laundress, teacher, scout and spy for the Union forces stationed in the Hilton Head district of South Carolina. In 1869 she married Nelson Davis at Central Presbyterian Church in Auburn, NY.




Highlights:

• Long-time Board member and volunteer at Booker T. Washington

Community Center

• Teacher aide in the Auburn City School District

• Director of Youth Choir at

Roosevelt Memorial Baptist Church for 25 years

• Life-long commitment to the needs

of Auburn’s children

• Great, great grandniece of Harriet Tubman

Leslie Walker, born June 12, 1951 in Auburn, NY, is the oldest of the nine children of Milton and Geraldine Copes Daniels. Growing up, Mrs. Walker attended Booker T. Washington Community Center on Chapman Avenue regularly, participating in every activity available. In 1963 she attended the March on Washington where she heard Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech first hand. In 1970 she graduated from West High School. Leslie worked for the Auburn School District's lunch program and the Cayuga County Action Program’s summer meals program for many years. In 1990 she attended the BOCES Early Childhood Education Program to become a Teacher's Aide in the Auburn Schools.




Highlights:

• Former Director of Communications

for Wells College

• Former Executive Director of the National Women’s Hall of Fame in

Seneca Falls

• New York State Governor’s Award for African-Americans of Distinction

• New York State Senate Woman of

Distinction Award


• President and CEO of gweninc.

Gwendolyn (Gwen) Webber-McLeod is President and CEO of gweninc. She has 30 years experience in leadership development and motivational speaking. A graduate of Potsdam University and Keuka College, Gwen has established several business ventures, including Treble Associates, Inspiring People to New Levels of LeadershipTM, Leadership Connection: A Resource Centered on Great LeadershipTM, and gwenspirationsTM. She has dedicated her life to being a champion of diversity and women’s rights.




Highlights:

• Among first children to integrate an all white school

striking a blow to desegregation

• First African American female driver for Birnie Bus Company

• Founder, “Joshua Generation”

• Organizer “Back to School” and

“Healthy Kids” days in Auburn

• 2010 NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Millennium Award

Recipient

Pastor Alberta Whitaker was born July 25, 1951 in Ellabell, Georgia. Pastor Whitaker is the pastor of the Holy Ghost Deliverance Center, Inc. in Auburn. She raised five children and is known for her compassion for all the children of the community. She was one of the first children in her hometown of Ellabell, GA to be bussed 5 miles to integrate an all white school in Pembroke, GA. In 1999 she helped found the "Joshua Generation”, a program organized by her church and established to encourage residents to help one another and to live a better way of life.

Documents

Table of Contents...Introduction Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure