Pioneering Black historian Carter Godwin Woodson made it his life’s work to find and record African-Americans’ history. He published multiple books on African-American history, founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and began the scholarly Journal of Negro History which has never missed an issue since 1916.
Woodson wanted African-Americans to have a history to be proud of, and correct the injustice of African-American contributions being “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them” which Woodson believed contributed to racism by making it appear that “the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind.”
But what Woodson is probably most famous for is creating “Negro History Week” in 1926. He placed it in February to honor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, who were both born in that month. His creation eventually became Black History Month as it is honored in the United States today.
