Carter Godwin Woodson is generally regarded as the father of modern black history. In the early 1900s when racial discrimination and prejudice threatened to reach unprecedented heights in the United States, Woodson stimulated new interest in the contributions of blacks to the growth of the nation through both his scholarly publications and the pioneering work carried out by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which he founded in 1915.

Born at New Canton in Buckingham County, Virginia, on 19 December 1875, Carter G. Woodson was one of nine children born to the former slaves James and Ann Eliza Woodson. Being of a large and poor family, young Carter was unable to attend the local school during most of its five-month school year. His parents needed his assistance on the farm to improve eventually the economic and social circumstances of the entire family.

Rather than dampening his resolve...