No matter what you think about black history month, now is the time to engage the tradition and build on our knowledge of our history. We thought it would be best to start with the founder and inventor of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson.
It is impossible to think you understand the plight of the African American in the United States without reading Carter G. Wooden’s classic book, “Mis-Education of the Negro”. It is our selection for the next book in the UI Book Club.
Kicking Off Black History Month with Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
The thesis of Dr. Woodson’s book is that African-Americans of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather than taught, in American schools. This conditioning, he claims, causes African-Americans to become dependent and to seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they are a part. He challenges his readers to become autodidacts and to “do for themselves”, regardless of what they were taught: History shows that it does not matter who is in power… those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they did in the beginning.
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