| The ASALH Website is a project of the ASALH Publication Committee, Daryl Michael Scott, Chair. Direct comments to phughes@asalh.net Page revised 01/03/2008 |
From its inception, America has been a landscape peopled by diverse ethnic and
racial groups, and today virtually all peoples are represented. If America has
always been racially and ethnically diverse, the nation's self-image has not always
recognized its multicultural history. Until the last decades of the twentieth century,
America has seen itself largely as the flowering of Anglo-Saxon culture and prided
itself on allowing immigrants to adopt the American way.
During the early years of the twentieth century, a small number of intellectuals
began to question whether America was simply a transplant of English civilization.
W. E. B. Du Bois, Theodore Herzel, and Randolph Bourne believed that modern
America should embrace the cultural differences that newcomers brought with
them to America. Democracy, they believed, required tolerance of difference and
could sustain those differences in harmony.
Among those intellectuals of the Progressive era, Carter G. Woodson did most to
forge an intellectual movement to educate Americans about cultural diversity and
democracy. For the sake of African Americans and all Americans, Woodson
heralded the contributions of African Americans and the black tradition. In 1915,
he established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and by the
time of his death in 1950, he had laid the foundation for a rethinking of American
identity. The multiculturalism of our times is built on the intellectual and
institutional labors of Woodson and the association he established. He should be
known not simply as the Father of Black History, but as pioneer of
multiculturalism as well.
In honor of its founder, the Association for the Study of African American Life and
History devotes the 2008 Annual Black History Theme to both the labors of
Woodson and the origins of multiculturalism.
racial groups, and today virtually all peoples are represented. If America has
always been racially and ethnically diverse, the nation's self-image has not always
recognized its multicultural history. Until the last decades of the twentieth century,
America has seen itself largely as the flowering of Anglo-Saxon culture and prided
itself on allowing immigrants to adopt the American way.
During the early years of the twentieth century, a small number of intellectuals
began to question whether America was simply a transplant of English civilization.
W. E. B. Du Bois, Theodore Herzel, and Randolph Bourne believed that modern
America should embrace the cultural differences that newcomers brought with
them to America. Democracy, they believed, required tolerance of difference and
could sustain those differences in harmony.
Among those intellectuals of the Progressive era, Carter G. Woodson did most to
forge an intellectual movement to educate Americans about cultural diversity and
democracy. For the sake of African Americans and all Americans, Woodson
heralded the contributions of African Americans and the black tradition. In 1915,
he established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and by the
time of his death in 1950, he had laid the foundation for a rethinking of American
identity. The multiculturalism of our times is built on the intellectual and
institutional labors of Woodson and the association he established. He should be
known not simply as the Father of Black History, but as pioneer of
multiculturalism as well.
In honor of its founder, the Association for the Study of African American Life and
History devotes the 2008 Annual Black History Theme to both the labors of
Woodson and the origins of multiculturalism.
Founders of Black History Month
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