After completing his Master's at the University of Chicago (in 1908) he attended the elite Sorbonne University in Paris, becoming fluent in French.
The civil rights movement was many years off when Woodson became a member of the Niagara Movement, but it could be said that the Niagara Movement was the precursor to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The group was formed in 1905 by W.E.B. DuBois, among other noted African-American scholars and leaders. They formed the movement to try to bring an end to racial discrimination and used "Niagara" because they hoped to create a "mighty current" for social change in the U.S.
As a regular columnist for The Negro World -- founded by Marcus Garvey -- Woodson was able to publish his viewpoints regarding racial justice and other social issues. He wrote several books; among the best known was The Mis-education of the Negro. An excerpt from that book is very interesting:
"…To handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills...
Mis-Education of the Negro Carter G. Woodson was a historian and educator with a prominent role in the Black community and a great interest in issues facing the Black community. Especially in terms of the role of education in the first half of the twentieth century, aspects of the Black experience that impacted the education of Black people, and what they themselves might want to achieve through an education. His book
African-Americans, who made up roughly 12% of the U.S. population in 2004, held only 10% of state government policy-leader posts last year, Watson reports. The report took note of the fact that under the leadership of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Republican, only 4.8% of leadership positions were held by Blacks, albeit Black citizens make up 16% of New York State's population. In fairness, the report adds
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