Why does Woodson suggest that Black people study slavery and other aspects of Black history?

Answer 1

Carter Godwin Woodson, in his 1933 text, The Mis-Education of the Negro, suggested that Black communities take an independent approach to understanding their history and oppose false narratives pushed by white influencers. The white-established and -directed educational institutions, government offices, and authors frequently pursued work to erase the extended history (in Africa and the diaspora) of Black people's successes, cultural traditions and innovations, and resistance to anti-Black systems like slavery and Jim Crow. He stresses this in comments on white-led institutions: "You might study the history as it was offered in our system from the elementary school throughout the university, and you would never hear Africa mentioned except in the negative. You would never thereby learn that Africans first domesticated the sheep, goat, and cow, developed the idea of trial by jury, produced the first stringed instruments, and gave the world its greatest boon in the discovery of iron." (Woodson, 1933.)

Woodson’s (1922) earlier textbook, The Negro in Our History, chronicles extended histories of Black people taking the initiative to organize society, preserve cultural traditions, and sustain learning through centuries before European colonialism and in resistance efforts under transatlantic slavery in the mainland and the diaspora. Among the empires he discussed was "the large kingdom of Songhay, covering the period from 700 to 1335" with effective “military “organization,” several “statesmen who [effectively] administer[ed] its affairs,” and “schools of learning and promoted the study of law, literature, the natural sciences, and medicine.” He continues exploring education as a site of resistance among enslaved Africans who challenged educational bans under American slavery: “How some of these slaves learned [by contact and by stealth] in spite of opposition makes a beautiful story. Knowing the value of learning as a means of escape and having a longing for it, too, because it was forbidden, many slaves continued learning.” (Woodson, 1922.)

Woodson’s arguments—from calls to action in Mis-Education to his extensive historiography of Black peoples’ cultures and resistance—stress a culturally affirmative approach to Black history that refuses master narratives or “civilizing missions” from the colonizer and enslaver. Woodson (in both texts) did not oppose support from whites who provided collaborative education by defying systems that advantaged them (including for runaways and ex-slaves such as Frederick Douglass). However, Woodson emphasized that Black people should set their own paths to learn about their history and challenge its erasure, obstruction, or removal as it has continued throughout and since slavery. He concludes Mis-Education by discussing the work, programs, and resources he made available through his “Association for the Study of Negro Life and History” (now ASALH, which introduced Black History Month). In Woodson’s terms, “[t]he Negro can be made proud of his past only by approaching it scientifically himself and giving his own story to the world. What others have written about the Negro during the last three centuries has been mainly for the purpose of bringing him where he is today and holding him there.” (Woodson, 1933.)

(Disclaimer: All quoted texts are available in the public domain.)