Tuesday, July 15, 2025

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To the Editor:

George Carter Woodson, the son of former slaves, would become the second Black American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Having experienced first-hand the glaring neglect and lack of knowledge about Black history, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. We remember him today as the “father of Black History” because he promoted Negro History Week in February 1926. It would be expanded to Black History Month in 1976. Why February? Because it is the month of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, two men whose names are closely associated with the liberation of Black Americans.