MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's Black History Month, and despite recent efforts by some to downplay celebrations of ethnic and racial heritage, it is still widely observed in the United States. A century ago, though, things were different. The contributions of African Americans were all but invisible in public life. The historian Carter G. Woodson set out to change that. He established Negro History Week in 1926. It became Black History Month in the 1970s. So as it celebrates its centennial, we decided to reach out to two people connected to the historian, starting with the Reverend Jessie Woodson-Johnson.
JESSIE WOODSON-JOHNSON: When I was in the eighth grade, I attended Carter G. Woodson High School. It never occurred to me until later that, you know, there is a connection.
MARTIN: That might be because she had other things to worry about. The segregated school had hand-me-down textbooks that often had half the pages missing. They had one bus to take the kids to school that often broke down on the way there. So it was only later that she realized that her great-grandfather and Carter G. Woodson were brothers.
WOODSON-JOHNSON: We figured it out because in 2009, another cousin, she coordinated a Dr. Carter G. Woodson family legacy reunion. She connected the dots for us.
MARTIN: We were also joined by Craig Woodson. He's white. He's an academic. He's an ethnomusicologist with a long interest in African drumming, and that led him to read about Carter G. Woodson. He discovered something shocking.
CRAIG WOODSON: I went to my dad and I said, you know, who are the Black Woodsons? 'Cause I really had not paid attention to that. And then he brought out the genealogy book. So the genealogy book was written in 1915 by Henry Morton Woodson, delineating all the white Woodsons back to 1619, Jamestown. And it says at the beginning that we began enslaving early in that time. He said six off the first ship.
MARTIN: It turns out that Craig Woodson's ancestors had enslaved the ancestors of Carter G. Woodson. After emancipation, it was common for formerly enslaved people to take the last name of their former owners. That revelation led Craig to organize a meeting where the white Woodsons apologized to the Black Woodsons.
WOODSON: We called it sankofa, which - a Ghanaian word which means you cannot move forward without remembering the past. And so we stayed in touch, and that's when we formed our Woodson family organization. And so we've been together now 2 1/2 years.
MARTIN: The group now works together on anti-racism efforts. I asked both Jessie Woodson-Johnson and Craig Woodson why they think Black History Month matters.
WOODSON: We have to live African American stories and history. It is one thing to learn about it, but it's another thing to be it. It's not a month. It's not a week. It's 365. It has to be remembered. It's that important. It is American history. It's not Black history. It's American. It is Black history, but it's American history. That's my feeling.
MARTIN: So, Reverend Johnson, let me turn back to you. You know, you were telling us the circumstances of your education when you were coming up, and just that there were so many things that you were deprived of. But having said that, do you think it matters to observe Black History Month?
WOODSON-JOHNSON: Yes, it matters because it's very important. Like Craig said, Black history is American history. And in the climate that we are now seeing before us and living in, it is more important even so now that we have and talk about, you know, our history. My favorite quote by Dr. Carter G. Woodson is, what we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race, hate and religious prejudice. Right now, I think we need to do a little bit more about, you know, Black history. It's because they're trying to erase it.
MARTIN: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because there are those who say - including the president, you know, who has said - and a lot of the people around him - that they think that teaching about Black history, different heritages, is divisive. And I wonder what you have to say about that.
WOODSON-JOHNSON: The word that comes to mind is ashamed. You know, some people may not come out and say it - that they are ashamed of what had happened, you know, to Black people, you know, during the whole period of slavery, the Jim Crow and how we had to fight for, you know, equal rights and to vote and all of that. But it's needed 'cause if we don't, you know, it could easily go back to the way things were back then. You know, history has a way of repeating itself.
MARTIN: Craig, what do you think about that, when you hear that there are people in prominent positions who feel that celebrating Black history or any of these heritage months is divisive? The Pentagon, for example, has banned all of the heritage celebrations. So when you hear that, what do you think about that?
WOODSON: Shameful. Shameful. Absolutely ridiculous because this is a multicultural world and it is a fragility. Many books have been written about white fragility and the white resistance, which is what they're doing. They're trying to resist the reality, and the reality will not be ignored.
MARTIN: Before we let you go, Craig, do you have a favorite way to observe Black History Month?
WOODSON: There's a book called "The Appeal," (ph) - and I like to go back and read that - that Carter Woodson wrote in 1921, when he couldn't publish it. And it was basically lost and then discovered years - many, many years later and then published recently. But I play drums, and that's the main way I celebrate it, is with music and drumming and remembering cultural events and being with friends of mine.
MARTIN: And what about you, Reverend Jessie Woodson-Johnson? What's your favorite way to observe Black History Month?
WOODSON-JOHNSON: I just like to, you know, share with my family, you know, my grandchildren and my children. I'm beginning to write a piece so that I can leave with my - you know, with my children so that they can give it to their children and continue, you know, this knowledge that we know that we are relatives of Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
MARTIN: That is the Reverend Jessie Woodson-Johnson. Her great-grandfather and Carter G. Woodson, the founder of Black History Month, were brothers. We were also joined by Craig Woodson, who discovered that his family and the Carter G. Woodson family are connected. Thank you both so much for joining us.
WOODSON: Thank you.
WOODSON-JOHNSON: Thank you for inviting us.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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