National association of personal historians
from Harvard, Woodson envisioned the twin goals of the ASNLH as the social scientific collection, recording, and publicizing the historical record while simultaneously hoping that this effort would be a “bridge to interracial group harmony ” by confronting and defeating, in Woodson’s words, “white prejudice.” An example of this dual goal was Woodson’s selection of New York City’s Riverside Church with its liberal white minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick as the site of the 1931 ASNLH meeting.įour months after the Association’s founding, Woodson began to publish the Journal of Negro History and in 1937, the Negro History Bulletin. Living and working as a member of the folk and teaching the folk led him to truly appreciate their ways of preserving their rich past such as “slave testimony and their oral history.” These experiences instilled in him an unwavering devotion to “Black folk” and their soul filled culture and history. in history from Harvard University (1912). The themes of the annual ASNLH meetings were driven by Woodson’s personal history as a son of ex-slaves, a child laborer in West Virginia coal mines, a older high school matriculate, a secondary school teacher in the District of Columbia, and the second African American to attain a Ph.D. Leaning strongly on historical objectivity as a change agent for race relations progress, Woodson was a product of his time, place, and experience. Nothing can be accomplished in such fashion…The aim of this organization is to set forth facts in scientific form, facts properly set forth will tell their own story.” Woodson explaining that in publicizing the records, contributions, and accomplishments of Black people, the Association’s aim “…is not spectacular propaganda or fire-eating agitation. Woodson purposely chose the second week in February between the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
In 1926 he initiated the national campaign to celebrate black history through annual Negro History Week observances. Woodson, known as the father of Negro History, created two publications in support of the ASNLH, the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin. The Associations’ mission statement describes its purpose “to promote, research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.” The Association’s vision statement still refers to itself as “the premier Black heritage learned society…will continue the Carter G.
The name was later changed to the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1972. Stamps, founded it as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) on Septemin Chicago, Illinois. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, and James E. Carter Godwin Woodson and four other individuals: Alexander L.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is the oldest and largest historical society established for the promotion of African American history. In the following account Professor Malik Simba of California State University, Fresno, describes the century-long history of the largest organized body dedicated to the research and promotion of African American history.