The story of Black History Month began a decade after the
founding of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History. When Carter G. Woodson conceived of the organization in
1915, he believed that publishing scientific history about the
black race would produce facts that would prove to the world
that Africa and its people had played a crucial role in the
development of civilization. As a Harvard-trained historian,
Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that the
truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over
prejudice. He thus established a scholarly journal, The Journal
of Negro History, a year after he formed the association.
Scientific history, he believed, would counter racial
falsehoods, and the community of white scholars would alter its
view of the black race. Eventually, the truth would trickle down
to the public, and the race problem would gradually disappear. A
decade into his labors, Woodson began to think differently about
the inherent power of scholarship, the