Carter Godwin Woodson

After years of working in coal mines and classrooms, he built an extraordinary academic career, earning degrees from Berea College, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University. He devoted his life to correcting the way American history was told, especially the exclusion of Black people from mainstream scholarship.

In 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and the next year he launched The Journal of Negro History. He also created Negro History Week in 1926 to encourage schools and the public to study Black history more seriously; that observance later expanded into Black History Month.

His books, teaching, and organizing helped shape generations of readers, students, and historians. Remembered as the "Father of Black History," he left a lasting legacy by insisting that African American history was central to the story of the United States.