Throughout his career, historian Carter G. Woodson, AB’1908, AM’1908, worked to change how Americans thought about Black history.
The University of Chicago alum began that mission when, in February 1926, he walked into the Wabash YMCA in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood to announce the creation of Negro History Week. The event was the predecessor of what would become Black History Month each February—the month chosen to include the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln.
“It is not so much a Negro History Week as it is a History Week,” Woodson wrote in 1927. “We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race, hatred and religious prejudice.”
On the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, learn more about Woodson and his legacy—as well as the events at UChicago, which range from lectures to concerts across campus.
‘Real education means to inspire’
Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson worked in the coal mines of West Virginia as a teenager to support his family, enrolling in high school at the age 20.
He later had a stint as a school supervisor in the Philippines, before completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UChicago. He then went to Harvard University, where he became its second Black student to earn a history Ph.D.—the other being writer W.E.B. Du Bois.
Woodson found that mainstream historians of his time were dismissive of Black history. Noting that he wasn't even able to attend the segregated conferences of the American Historical Association despite being a dues-paying member, in 1915 Woodson started a parallel organization in Chicago: the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Until his death in 1950, Woodson worked to study and promote Black history, mostly at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A lifelong proponent of education, Woodson credited his father, who had been illiterate, as “the greatest factor” in his own journey.
“Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better,” Woodson wrote in his 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro. “No man knows what he can do until he tries.”
2026 Black History Month events at UChicago
- Feb. 5: Hear from Fania Davis, a writer, civil rights attorney, social justice activist and scholar, at the annual George E. Kent Lecture, honoring one of the first Black professors at UChicago. This year’s lecture will feature Free and open to the public. Registration is required.
- Feb 5: Enjoy a Tea Time concert spotlighting Black queer composers shaping contemporary classical music with the playOUT! organization. More information.
- Feb. 10: Hear from historians Thavolia Glymph, a professor from Duke University, and UChicago Prof. Thomas Holt at the annual John Hope Franklin Lecture. The scholars will discuss the ongoing work of documenting and interpreting African American history. More information.
- Feb. 12: Enjoy a Tea Time Concert showcasing the Afro-Cuban Folkloric Ensemble to explore the African roots of Cuban music and dance. More information.
- Feb. 16: Hear from Chicago photographer and artist Tonika Johnson at the Mansueto Black History Month Colloquium. Johnson will discuss her work on the acclaimed Folded Map Project, which visualizes Chicago’s segregation by connecting “map twins”—residents living on the same street but miles apart in racially and economically different neighborhoods. More information.
- Feb. 26: Join a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon with librarians and others to create and improve Wikipedia articles on Black Chicago history. More information.
