Carter G. Woodson: The West Virginia Connection
In Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia, a granite stone marks the graves of the parents and some other family members of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History.” The stone stands as mute testimony to the Woodson family’s association with the state and to the connection that Dr. Woodson, an internationally known scholar, also had with West Virginia. Among those buried in the family plot are Dr. Woodson’s mother and father, Anna Eliza Riddle Woodson and James Henry Woodson, and his sister, Susie. Also buried in the same cemetery, but not in the family plot, are three other of Dr. Woodson’s siblings: his sisters Bessie and Cora, and his brother, Robert.
Although Carter G. Woodson was born in Virginia, he migrated to West Virginia, where he spent some formative years. After serving what he termed as a “six years’ apprenticeship in the West Virginia coal mines,”1 he finished high school in the state and began his career as a teacher there.
Even after he permanently settled elsewhere and furthered his life’s calling as a teacher, researcher, writer and “drum major” for black history, his enduring professional and family connections in West Virginia kept him involved with the state over a long period of time. One brother resided in Beckley. His parents, another brother, and one sister made Huntington their home as did his Aunt Betty, his father’s sister, and her husband, Reverend Nelson Barnett, one of the city’s pioneering black ministers
Dr. Woodson’s parents had been enslaved in Virginia. His mother, Anne Eliza Riddle Woodson in Buckingham County, and his father, James Henry Woodson, in Fluvanna County.2 The couple married in [End Page 59] 1867 and eventually became the parents of nine children: William, Cora, Robert, Carter, Susie, Edward, Bessie, and two who did not survive infancy.3
In the 1870s, along with a party of other previously enslaved black people, including the Barnetts, the Woodsons moved to the area of West Virginia that would become Huntington. Lifelong Huntington resident, Edna Smith Duckworth, suggested that this group of the formerly enslaved may have been recruited by C. P. Huntington to help build the C & O Railroad there. She referred to them as the “black pioneers” of Huntington and indicated that they supplied some of the labor that helped to create the city.4
Even though Dr. Woodson’s parents had been enslaved and had seen families separated, neither James nor Anne Eliza seemed to have lost their own concepts of family through their servitude. For example, as a young girl, Anne Eliza Riddle was willing to sacrifice herself for her family. When her owner decided to sell some of the family in order to raise money, she convinced him to sell her instead of her mother so that the mother and younger children could remain together. The Riddle family was further separated when one of these children was lost to their mother during the Civil War. Seeing him alone while his mother was in the fields, Union soldiers took a fancy to him and took him with them when they moved on. When the troops reached White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, they left the boy with a family there. The family who received him did not know where the boy came from, and he could not tell them, nor did his birth family know what had become of him.5
While Mrs. Woodson was living in Huntington in the 1870s, however, a man from White Sulphur Springs who was working in Huntington heard her speak of her lost brother. He remembered a man from his hometown who had the name that Mrs. Woodson used and launched inquiries in his home area about him. Through these efforts, Mrs. Woodson was re-united with her brother, Robert D. [End Page 60] Riddle,6 who lived his entire adult life in the Ronceverte area of West Virginia, becoming a teacher and farmer.
Life in West Virginia must not have met the Woodsons’ expectations fully, for in 1874 they went back to Buckingham County, Virginia, and remained there until 1893. The first of the Woodson family to return to West Virginia was son, Robert, who like many other Virginia black people, sought work in the developing economy of the new state. In 1944, Dr. Woodson wrote of his brother’s move to West Virginia:
My oldest brother, Robert H. Woodson, had gone in this migration, and on a visit in Virginia he gave such a glowing account of the prosperity to the west that all the children wanted to go with him to this land of promise. My mother was easily induced to go, but it was only with reluctance that my father agreed to go back to the Little Mountain State.7
Most of the Woodson family did leave Virginia, although all of them did not make their lifetime homes in West Virginia. Carter and Robert first stopped in Fayette County, West Virginia, where they found work helping to build the railroad along Loup Creek from Thurmond. They next moved to jobs as coal miners at Nutallburg, also in Fayette County. Dr. Woodson remembered this period as an important experience in his life, for in Nutallburg he met Oliver Jones, a fellow miner who in the evenings opened his home to other miners as a tearoom.8 Woodson’s ability to read was an important factor in this relationship.
Two of Mrs. Woodson’s brothers, John Morton Riddle and James Buchanan Riddle, had given Carter G. Woodson the basics of education in the rural school in which they taught in Virginia where the family had lived. When Oliver Jones learned that Woodson could read, he gave him good things to eat from the tearoom in return for Woodson’s reading aloud for Jones and his friends. Jones subscribed to several newspapers, some by black publishers and some [End Page 61] by white publishers, some based in West Virginia and some from out-of-state. To this group of miners, Woodson read material about the government and politics and about matters of contemporary and historical interest. He also read from books about black people: Books such as William J. Simmons’ Men of Mark, Joseph T. Wilson’s Black Phalanx, and George Washington Williams’ Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion.9 Of this experience, Woodson later said:
In this circle the history of the race was discussed frequently, and my interest in penetrating the past was deepened and intensified. 10
Others of the Woodson family returned to West Virginia in 1893, settling in Huntington, on Twentieth Street near Sixth Avenue. Woodson children, Bessie and Robert, spent their lives in Huntington. William lived in West Virginia for a time, but is thought to have eventually moved to Pennsylvania; although Cora is buried in Huntington, it is believed that she, too, lived a good part of her life in Pennsylvania.
Edward Woodson lived in Beckley, married and had a family there. His grandson, Robert Carter Woodson, remembered that when he was a little boy in Beckley, his Grand Uncle Carter visited the family there.11 Symbolic of the kinship ties is this grand nephew’s name, “Robert Carter,” and its recurrence in the family. Now borne by the fifth generation, the names “Robert” and “Carter” are also identified with earlier members of the family. The first known “Carter” was Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s grandfather, the father of James Woodson. Both James Woodson and his sister, Betty Woodson Barnett, honored their father by giving his name “Carter” to one of their sons. An early use of “Robert” is found in the name of Dr. Woodson’s uncle, his mother Anne Eliza Riddle Woodson’s brother, Robert D. Riddle, who was “lost” to the family from youth to adulthood because he was carried [End Page 62] off by Union troops when he was a child. His sister remembered him, however, and gave one of her sons the same name, and it has been carried on in succeeding generations.
In 1895, after the Woodsons moved back to Huntington, Carter enrolled in the high school program at Douglass School, graduating in 1896 as one of two students completing the high school course that year. The 1896 commencement was held at the Davis Theatre in downtown Huntington and featured music, an address, and an operetta entitled, “A Trip to Europe.”
After his graduation from Douglass, Carter Woodson taught for a time in Winona in Fayette County. While there, he and his brother, Robert, were active with the First Baptist Church of Winona, built in 1895 on land acquired for $10 from the Smokeless and Dubree Coal Company. Both Robert and Carter served on the Deacons’ Board with Carter as its President. He also taught Sunday school.12
In the 1896–1897 term, Woodson became a student at Kentucky’s Berea College which was an interracial institution at that time. He was awarded the B.L. Degree on June 3, 1903.13
Although he did not receive his teacher’s certificate until May 1901, Woodson assumed the principalship of Huntington’s Douglass School in 1900, succeeding his cousin Carter H. Barnett (son of Betty Woodson Barnett and Rev. Nelson Barnett), who was dismissed because of the political opinions which he expressed in his newspaper, the West Virginia Spokesman.14
Principal Woodson and Douglass School were in the newspaper in 1901 when President McKinley was assassinated. Principal Woodson sponsored a program commemorating the deceased president’s life. The program suggests the patriotism of the time and the black public’s awareness of and identification with national politics. The Huntington Advertiser reported the service in the following article: [End Page 63]
Services at Douglass School
At 10:30 a.m. yesterday memorial services were held at Douglass high school. The exercises were begun by singing “America,” after which Rev. Beame invoked the divine blessing. Principal C. G. Woodson briefly sketched the life of the illustrious dead, and at the close of his talk suggested the singing of “Nearer My God to Thee.”
Rev. J.M. Beame delivered a very impressive discourse on “The Religious Life of the President.” The school then sang “Lead Kindly Light.”
The next speaker was Attorney W. H. Gordon who grew eloquent as he spoke of McKinley as a patriot.
After singing the “Banner of the Free,” Dr. C. H. Payne made a very forceful and instructive address on “McKinley as President.” The exercise closed by singing the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Huntington Advertiser, Friday September 20, 190115
Among the interesting family connections of the Woodson presence in Huntington is that Carter Woodson was the principal at Douglass when his youngest sister, Bessie, graduated. She was one of the commencement speakers at her graduation in 1902. Of this commencement, The Huntington Advertiser wrote on Saturday, May 10, 1902:
Douglass High School Commencement
Closing Exercises of Colored School At Theatre Last Night
The annual commencement exercises of the Douglass High School occurred last night at the Huntington Theatre before a large and representative audience. The exercises were of a high character throughout and reflected great credit upon all who participated in them. The music was a very pleasant feature of the occasion and the young people acquitted themselves excellently in their orations.
The following is the program: [End Page 64]
Invocation, Rev. A. Haysette. Chorus, “Song of Welcome,” Veazie. Oration, “Achievements of the Lowly, “ Elnora A. Mickens. Oration, “Patrick Henry.” Bessie B. Woodson. Chorus, “The Lillies Wake from Dewey Sleep,” Coate. Address, Principal C. G. Woodson. Chorus, “Our Triumphant Flag,” Fischer. Delivery of Diplomas. Doxology. Benediction.16
Resigning as the principal of Douglass in 1903, Carter Woodson left West Virginia to begin a teaching/administrative assignment in the Philippines. This post probably represented a major break from his past and was an important step in his development for it gave him an opportunity for the first-hand observation of a different culture.
While in the Philippines, he learned to speak Spanish fluently, and he traveled widely before he returned to the United States. He continued his education at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the University of Chicago, and at Harvard University, earning his Ph.D. from the latter institution in 1912.
Although Dr. Woodson was never a resident of Huntington after he resigned as the principal of Douglass, he maintained ties in West Virginia. He came back to the state to visit family and friends or to fulfill speaking engagements. Some of his family members recall him as a stern, unsmiling, no-nonsense sort of person, stubbornly single-minded in the pursuit of his goals in black history. Yet, it is in his family relationships that we see a softer side, the son, the brother, and the uncle who visited occasionally and helped financially. Throughout the years, he remained attentive to his family’s needs. After his father’s death, his mother moved from the house on Twentieth Street to one which Dr. Woodson’s brother, Robert, by then a contractor, built at [End Page 65] 1660 Tenth Avenue in Huntington. It was to the Tenth Avenue home that Dr. Woodson sent a nurse to care for his mother during her last illness.17
Dr. Woodson’s final professional appointment in West Virginia was as the Dean of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute (later West Virginia State College, now West Virginia State University) from 1920–1922. Dr. John W. Davis who was the president of the institution during that period used to say that it was really Woodson, not he, whom the governing board wanted as president. By that time, Dr. Woodson had begun his work with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and was fully committed to that organization and to other black history activities. He did, however, consent to come with Dr. Davis as Dean for two years.
The West Virginia Collegiate Institute had been given permission to grant college degrees in 1915, but when John W. Davis became president in 1919, the number of students in the college program was small; moreover, the faculty was not truly prepared for strong college work. Davis and Woodson set about reorganizing certain academic aspects of the institution and recruiting additional faculty trained at some of the nation’s best schools. “It was during that period that my husband joined the faculty,” said Mrs. Adolph Hamblin, speaking in 1972 of her husband, Adolph Hamblin, legendary faculty member and coach at West Virginia State College. “He was a new graduate from Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois) and they asked him to come to the Institute.”18 It was from Mrs. Hamblin’s picture album that the only extant photograph of Dr. Woodson during his time at West Virginia Collegiate Institute came.
Davis and Woodson also created more opportunities for faculty involvement with college operations, developing a faculty executive committee, increasing standing committees from seven to twelve, adding new committees on the library, student records, student advice, summer school, and the catalogue, and broadening the classification committee to include admissions as well as classification.19 These [End Page 66] changes suggest the academic orientation of the new administration and the willingness to involve faculty in planning. Their success might be measured in the growing enrollment in the college program which moved from twenty-seven in academic year 1919–1920 to ninety in academic year 1921–1922.20
While at the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Dr. Woodson chaired a committee that collected information concerning early black education in West Virginia. He authored a statement growing out of the findings of that committee. It remains as a valuable document concerning the history of black education in the state.
In 1922, Dr. Woodson went back to Washington, D.C., and never lived or worked in West Virginia again. During his career, he wrote twelve books, and numerous articles; he also edited other books including a four-volume series of the work of Francis Grimke. In 1915, with a group of other men in Chicago, he had organized the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and he had established the Associated Publishers in 1921 in order to produce the books on black history and culture that other companies were reluctant to publish. He soon understood, however, that writing and publishing by themselves would not make people aware of black history. Therefore, in 1926, he inaugurated Negro History Week (later expanded to Black History Month) which extended the study of black history from the pages of academic journals and college classrooms to the public through black churches, elementary and high schools, and civic and social organizations. He selected a mid-February date for the celebration because it embraced the birthdays of two statesmen who had played vital roles in the lives of black Americans, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th and Frederick Douglass’s birthday on February 14th. Subsequently, he began the publication of The Negro History Bulletin which provided accessible material for use by public school teachers and others and helped the popular rise of the study of black history.
After Dr. Woodson left West Virginia, some of his family remained in the state, including his brother, Edward, and his family in Beckley; his brother, Robert, and sister, Bessie, and their families [End Page 67] in Huntington; and the Barnett relatives also in Huntington. He continued to visit them and to fulfill professional engagements in the state such as speaking at West Virginia State College.
Some of Dr. Woodson’s family felt that, as was true of many other men of his time, he had a reserved demeanor, and they had to act accordingly when he was visiting. “I was cleaned up and had to sit quietly in the living room when Uncle Carter came,” grand nephew Nelson Bickley recalled. “My grandmother, (Dr. Woodson’s sister, Bessie), had great respect for him and wouldn’t let me chatter, or run around, or play when he visited.”21
On occasion, Dr. Woodson’s interaction with family members seemed somewhat formal; for example, a 1939 letter to his sister Bessie, opens with “My dear Sister,” and is signed, “Respectfully yours, C. G. Woodson.” An idea of the esteem and deference with which some the family regarded him is indicated by a comment made by his niece, Belva Clark, who recalled that when she moved from New York to West Virginia to care for her mother, Bessie, who was ill, Dr. Woodson met her at the depot in Washington and helped her to change trains. “He carried my bags himself,” she remembered, still awed after fifty years by his willingness to perform such a humble service for her.22
In spite of his reserve, Dr. Woodson manifested his regard for his West Virginia family through the support and encouragement that he gave them. He paid tuition and other fees for a niece and grand nieces for attendance at the Nannie Burroughs’ School in Washington, D.C., and he helped to pay the college expenses of a nephew and a grand nephew. He evinced a particular concern for his mother and the other women of his family. He was attentive to them during their illnesses. He dedicated his book of African myths to his sister, Bessie, in 1926. He purchased the home at 1703 Artisan Avenue, in Huntington, for her and provided needed items of furniture. In 1939, through the Associated Publishers, he produced a slim volume of sister Bessie’s poems entitled Echoes from the Hills. In addition to being a demonstration of encouragement and family solidarity, his publication [End Page 68] of this book gave the state of West Virginia one of its few permanent records of the work of one of its early black female writers.
The Woodson family survived the rigors of slavery, relocation, and separation. Although Dr. Woodson achieved an educational level and prestige unequaled by other family members, he never forgot them. He maintained contact, gave financial support, encouraged the literary aims of his sister, provided for the educational development of some of the younger members of the family, and, when he could, assured their comfort and well being, particularly of the women of his family; even in his will, he remembered those of his siblings who survived him.
Dr. Woodson’s relationship with West Virginia spanned over fifty years, beginning with his arrival in the state to work in the 1890s and ending only with his death in 1950. In recognition of his scholarly achievements, his time in the state, and his lasting ties to it, the Carter G. Woodson Foundation, inaugurated by Mayor Robert Nelson in 1986 and headquartered in Huntington, West Virginia, erected a lifesize statue of Dr. Woodson on Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington in 1994. Later, the Foundation and the West Virginia Department of Culture and History placed a highway historical marker nearby.
Although Dr. Woodson was not born in West Virginia, it is entirely fitting that this connection to the state and to his family who lived there be acknowledged. It is also fitting that the part that his adopted state played in furthering his development and launching his career as an educator be remembered with pride by West Virginia’s citizens. [End Page 69]
Ancella R. Bickley is a retired professor of English and Vice President for Academic Affairs at West Virginia State College. The author of Memphis Tennessee Garrison, published by the Ohio University Press, she currently lives in Florida.
Footnotes
1. Carter G. Woodson. The Mis-education of the Negro. Trenton: Africa World Press. 1990 edition. p. 72.
2. Carter G. Woodson, “My Recollections of Veterans of the Civil War,” The Negro History Bulletin, p.. 103–4.
3. Belva Johnson Clark (Daughter of Bessie Woodson Yancey). Interview, January 2, 1994.
4. Edna Smith Duckworth, “A Black History of Huntington.” Unpublished manuscript, n. d.
5. Woodson, “My Recollections.” p. 104.
6. Ibid. p. 104
7. Ibid. p. 115.
8. Ibid. p. 115.
9. Ibid. p. 116
10. Ibid. p. 116.
11. Robert C. Woodson, grandson of Carter G. Woodson’s brother, Edward, telephone interview, January 5, 1994.
12. History of Church-United Missionary Baptist Church, Once Known [as] The First Baptist Church [Winona, WV] Unpublished Manuscript, n. d. Courtesy of Elsie Choice Hopkins.
13. Rayford W. Logan, “Carter G. Woodson: Mirror and Molder of His Time,” The Journal of Negro History, Volume 58, No. 1, January 1973. p. 4.
14. Nelson L. Barnett, Jr. “The School Board in Politics,” Huntington Advertiser, in Past Imperfect: Selected Clippings from Huntington Newspapers . Unpublished manuscript, 1988. p.. 392.
15. Ibid, p. 451–2.
16. Ibid. p. 507.
17. Belva Clark (daughter of Carter G. Woodson’s sister, Bessie) interview, January 2, 1994.
18. Interview with Miriam Hamblin, Institute, W. Va., 1972.
19. WV Collegiate Institute Catalogue, 1920, p. 9
20. John Clifford Harlan, History of West Virginia State College, 1891–1965. Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown Book Company, 1968, p. 54
21. Nelson R. Bickley, Jr. (grandson of Bessie Woodson Yancey, Carter G. Woodson’s sister) interview, February 2000.
22. Clark interview, January 2, 1994.
