The Woodson High School community turned out Thursday for the re-dedication of the Fairfax high school that’s been renamed in honor of Virginia native Carter G. Woodson, an author and historian considered to be the “father of Black history.”
While the school is known as Woodson High, it was originally named for Wilbert Tucker Woodson or W.T. Woodson, FCPS’ second longest-serving superintendent, who led the school system from 1929–1961. Historical documents showed he opposed desegregation, leading the community to ask for a name change.
After two months of public discussions, the Fairfax County School Board unanimously voted to rename the school to be more inclusive.
The school’s namesake is now Carter G. Woodson, a nationally renowned scholar, author, educator, and journalist, whose parents had been enslaved and who grew up in Virginia’s Buckingham County in Central Virginia.
Carter G. Woodson was largely self-taught, entering high school at age 20, and then going on to get advanced degrees at the University of Chicago and Harvard University. He would be the second Black American to graduate with a Ph.D. from Harvard.
With grant funding, he started the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, and then began publishing the Journal of Negro History. He would go on to start Negro History Week in 1926, the precursor to Black History Month in February.
Carter G. Woodson also would go on to become a faculty member and the dean of Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The University of Virginia would also establish The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies in his honor.
Feature image by Karen Bolt/Fairfax County Public Schools
For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine’s News newsletter.
