Buckingham County, Virginia
Time Magazine
Monday, July 12, 1926
Award
In Chicago last week the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People ended its annual
deliberations. Many a notable such as Julius Rosenwald
and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, friendly to Negroes,
had been heard. Resolutions were passed and a million
dollar program for promoting more perfect race
equality was adopted. The climax came when the
Spingarn medal, the symbol of Negro distinction, was
presented to Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson for "ten years'
service in collecting and publishing records of the
Negro in America."
Ten years after Appomattox, unto two ex-slaves of
Virginia was born a ninth child—Carter Godwin Woodson,
(Carter Godwin Woodson (b. December 19, 1875, New
Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia — d. April 3,
1950, Washington, D.C.). Doubly handicapped by color
and by poverty, he nevertheless had acquired by 1912 a
University of Chicago M. A. and a Harvard Ph. D. His
outstanding achievement was the organization of the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in
connection with which he has devoted his life to the
collection of sociological and historical documents of
Negro significance. Interested readers perusing
casually the maze of unfamiliar facts portrayed in
history viewed through smoked glasses* glance twice at
such information as: Several Negroes were included
among the "minutemen" of the Revolutionary War.
Crispus Attucks, Negro, was one of the first four
soldiers to shed blood in behalf of U. S. liberty.
Southern Aristocrat Jefferson openly opposed slavery;
Henry Laurens, George Wythe, George Mason, George
Washington tacitly did likewise. At Bunker Hill, Peter
Salem, Negro, achieved distinction by killing Major
Pitcairn. Jacob Bishop, Negro, was one-time pastor of
the First Baptist (white) church of Portsmouth, Va. In
1773, in Maryland, two-thirds of those teaching both
Whites and Negroes were felons. An escaping slave
prior to 1865 wore "a black cloth coat, a high hat,
white flannel waistcoat, a checked shirt, a pair of
everlasting breeches, a pair of yarn stockings, a pair
of old pumps . . . and sundry other clothes.
A considerable number of Negroes owned slaves before
the Civil War.
One Phyllis Wheatly, obfuscate Boston demoiselle,
wrote good poetry at an early date.
A sister of President Madison once said, "We Southern
ladies are complimented with the name of wives; but we
are only the mistresses of seraglios."
The University of Heidelberg conferred the degree of
Doctor of Divinity upon J. W. C. Pennington, Maryland
slave.
Josiah Henson, prototype of Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom's
Cabin, was received by Queen Victoria.
"Henry O. Tanner, with the white artist Sargent,
represents the best America has produced in painting."
Negro B. K. Bruce served a full term as U. S. Senator
from Mississippi.
"Most Negroes who sat in Congress during the 80's and
90's . . . had more formal education than Warran G.
Harding."
The 370th (8th Illinois) colored regiment (officered
by Negroes) received more citations and croix de
guerre than any other American regiment in France.
*THE NEGRO IN OUR HISTORY
Associated Publishers,
Washington, D.C.
Submitted by: Dena Whitesell
Thanks Dena