The Mis-Education of the Negro

The Mis-Education of the Negro is a book originally published in 1933 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. The son of former slaves, in 1912 Woodson earned his Ph.D. in history at Harvard University, the second African-American to earn a doctorate – the first being W. E. B. DuBois. In 1926 Carter Godwin Woodson originated the concept of Negro History Week, which he set in the second week of February, which coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. That week of recognition soon became largely accepted, and was eventually extended for the full month of February, becoming known as Black History Month. The Mis-Education of the Negro was originally a series of speeches and essays delivered and written by Woodson in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but which he collected into book form in 1933. It is still considered a classic piece of African-American writing and is widely in high school and college classrooms.