For the ‘Father of Black History,’ the education of Blacks was the issue
Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who founded Negro History Week in 1926, focused much of his attention as a writer and historian on issues of education or “mis-education,” as he put it, of Black people that resulted in internalized inferiority
“When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions,” he wrote. “You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will fi nd his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefi t. His education makes it necessary.” Woodson used African-American history to encourage Blacks to believe in themselves and in each other. As his special week grew into Black History Month a few decades ago, it seems to have become less about the education, self-assessment and growth of African-Americans and more about the heroism. So, it seems fi tting to focus on books for this monthlong observance that address the history of and solutions to education issues that concerned Woodson as a former teacher and administrator himself
He would probably not be surprised that many of these issues are still with us
The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing It Is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of Our Time, by Rod Paige and Elaine Witty, $22, AMACOM, February 2010, ISBN-10: 0814415199, ISBN- 13: 978-0814415, pp
256.
