Photo by Morgan Napier

Celebrating an American Milestone

Marshall honors the centennial of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s dream: To encompass all Americans in telling America’s story

By Jean Hardiman

When sharing a good story, it’s important to include all the relevant details — the key players and others who affect the outcome, the experiences that made them all who they are. The lessons they learned, the struggles they endured, the things they did, the impact they left. The joy and victories. The hurt and the setbacks. All of it.

The details enrich the story, make it compelling and inspiring to more people. The more they learn, the more confidently and carefully they can tread as they shape their own stories.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson knew this. He knew the power of stories, and that, all too often, there was relevant information being left out of the story of the United States. He wanted there to be more public understanding of the contributions and experiences of his Black ancestors. So as a scholar, an educator and a master of harnessing the power of the press, he did something about it.

In 1926, he established the first nationally recognized event celebrating his people’s history — Negro History Week, which has since evolved into Black History Month. In doing so, he began an effort that led to his distinction as the Father of Black History. And this year, 100 years later, Marshall University is celebrating his effort in a yearlong event filled with multiple opportunities to learn the history and celebrate the contributions made thus far by Black Americans.

Marshall doesn’t lay claim to Woodson as an alum or a former professor, but the university is home to The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum, which is dedicated to extending his legacy, and the university is located in Huntington, home to some of Woodson’s formative experiences. The young man who grew up farming and coal mining and would later become the second African American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard University (following W.E.B. DuBois) earned his high school diploma from the former Douglass High School in Huntington and became a principal there.

“What makes this special for Huntington, West Virginia, is Carter G. Woodson is one of us,” Marshall President Brad D. Smith said during the Black History Month Kickoff event at Marshall’s Memorial Student Center. “He lived here. He worked here. This community shaped his thinking, it shaped his scholarship and it shaped his commitment to education and truth. Tonight, we’re going to have the opportunity to kick off 12 months of celebrating the centennial of the founding of Negro History Week, which has transformed into Black History Month. What (Marshall Professor Burnis Morris) and the team have set forth in the next 12 months are exciting events, conversations and reflections on his impact and his legacy.”

Woodson’s career would include several positions in academia and achievements in publishing, as well as establishing the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

“Basically, he was concerned that the Black population would disappear if they didn’t know their past and if other races didn’t understand that African Americans had made contributions to American life and the human race,” said Morris, director of The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum and the Woodson Professor of Journalism at Marshall. “There needs to be a deeper understanding of Black history and to fit it into the overall American history picture. There were some unscrupulous historians before Woodson that he had to correct because they were not telling the story of African Americans. So, part of what he was doing was correcting the facts about African American history, as well as introducing people to new material.”

However, Woodson didn’t necessarily want a separate history for different groups depending on their cultural background, said Morris — who authored the book, “Carter G. Woodson: History, the Black Press, and Public Relations.” He wanted it all included in the same story.

“When you talk about Black history, you’re actually talking about a large area. It’s not like you just look at slavery or the Civil Rights Movement. It’s bigger than that, and it cuts across many different areas,” Morris said.

With that in mind, Marshall’s Celebrating an American Milestone celebration has included activities that have highlighted many fields, from past and current contributions in music, science, entrepreneurship, education, journalism and much more. It has included free online classes on Black and Black Appalachian history, jazz and blues, and literature, including language, poetry and fiction.

“This is something Woodson did after he created Negro History Week. He created correspondence courses,” Morris said. “The equivalent of correspondence courses would be online courses in our time. But Woodson charged $20 per course, and our courses are free.”

Marshall also hosted a Negro History Week/Black History Month Symposium, organized by Dr. Montserrat Miller and The John Deaver Drinko Academy and covering milestones and issues in the arts, sciences, identity, politics, education, history, social trends and more. It included a trip to West Virginia State University, where Woodson was dean for a time, and a tour of Booker T. Washington’s homesite in Malden.

Marshall issued a nationwide call for papers and invited a host of special guests to West Virginia for the occasion, including talented musicians, educators, historians, journalists and scholars such as Dr. Bertis English, a professor of history at Alabama State University and the editor of the Journal of African American History — a journal that Woodson founded. President Smith hosted a fireside chat with John Hope Bryant — a businessman, promoter of financial literacy and founder of Operation HOPE, which boosts opportunity in free enterprise for the underserved. The university’s celebration also included a visit from the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, featured in the Academy Award-winning movie “Sinners.”

It’s all a continuation of work of The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum at Marshall. The Lyceum was founded by Morris and former Marshall Provost Dr. Alan Gould, who headed The John Deaver Drinko Academy. In 2011-13, Morris was selected as Distinguished John Deaver Drinko Fellow and completed his book on Woodson and the press during his fellowship. At that time, he and Gould decided to go beyond just honoring Woodson, but to create something permanent to continue his legacy with the founding of The Lyceum.

The Lyceum has since been organizing an annual Black History Month essay and poster competition for not only Marshall students, but K-12 students, to encourage youth to explore the many contributions of African Americans through the centuries. The Lyceum also has hosted continuing education opportunities for K-12 teachers.

“We’ve made some progress over the years, since Woodson started 100 years ago, but there is an argument for why we need to continue doing it,” Morris said. “I think Woodson would have been perfectly happy to have had the work done by now, that Negro History Week and Black History Month would be part of the American story.”

The planning of the centennial celebration has been in the works for a couple years by the Negro History Week/Black History Month Centennial Committee, co-chaired by Smith and Morris, which included representatives of Marshall University, West Virginia State University, Marshall Health and the city of Huntington. In kicking off the celebration on Jan. 30, Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell shared that when he read “Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story,” written by Marshall Professor Dr. Cicero Fain III, it completed his understanding of the city where he has lived for so long and is now so proud to lead.

“As we celebrate (America’s 250th birthday), we have to celebrate all of history,” Farrell said. “I’m proud of the work that Dr. Woodson started and I’m proud of what he did from Huntington and, as we move forward looking to the next 250 years, that we’re going to tell the full story that involves everybody.”

Fain, assistant provost for access and opportunity at Marshall, teaches Black Appalachian history to Marshall’s Yeager Scholars and always includes Woodson as one of three iconic Black Appalachians that shaped history, along with Booker T. Washington and Henry Lewis Gates. All three spent at least some of their younger years in West Virginia.

“Carter G. Woodson — I think I live and breathe his legacy, in terms of standing on the shoulders of a giant,” Fain said. “There is no doubt that he was an inspiration for me, a touchstone for me as I shifted into trying to be a scholar. The more I learned about his remarkable legacy, the more it energized me that this is someone I want, as best as I can, to emulate.”

Along with teaching courses at Marshall and authoring “Black Huntington,” Fain is also hoping to help Marshall establish a certification program on cultural heritage management, to help nonprofits with the logistics of preserving and celebrating history.

In the community, Fain gives charter tours about the history of Huntington’s Black community, as well as shepherding the establishment of a Black Appalachian Cultural Center in downtown Huntington, which Fain hopes will feature new technologies to provide an immersion experience to help bring Black history to life.

“The ultimate goal is to have the Black Appalachian Cultural Center serve as a hub of the developing cultural heritage tourism (effort) within southern West Virginia and the Tri-State region that currently does not exist,” Fain said. As assistant director of outreach and research for the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Initiative, he’s also assisting in a program to identify more than 20 sites that will be part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

“There are a lot of moving pieces,” he said. “The coalescence of multiple endeavors around Black history, around cultural heritage tourism will ultimately be transformative. The primary goal is to use cultural enrichment as a catalyst for economic development and job creation.

“Also, these types of endeavors show to our students that we are truly representative of all folks, and we are a university that is committed to doing the best job we can in enriching as many people as possible,” Fain said. “Ultimately, our students will come away with not only knowledge but a greater sense of pride. That benefits us all.”

The Dr. Carter G. Woodson lapel pin and the official Centennial poster – these are not only commemorative items, they’re also reminders of our shared responsibility to make sure that history remains visible, accurate and alive.

– Brad D. Smith

President, Marshall University