The Life & Legacy of Carter G Woodson w/ Dr. Greg Carr

Note: This version is an update to the version aired on Feb. 26 2020. Dr. Greg Carr engaged in this discussion at the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago on January 31, 2020. ____________________________________________ When thinking of history, one tends to categorize or disassociate the contextual conditions that create & propel phenomena/phenomenon that move across time and space. Events and thought are relegated to a disassociated moment, mapped on categories of time that have been redefined to fit a particular worldview---Western European historiography and historicity and its notion of modernity. The concept is strip of its promise of futurity. I have stated before and will state again, the perspective of history that holds together the web of the past, present and future is the one presented by John Henrik Clarke. Dr. Clarke writes: “History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.” It is precisely because of this, I argue that those who are interested in black history should---must---also be concerned with an Africana future. Of the many places we can start to understand the nexus of time and space, and given what this month has come to mean for many, it is appropriate and necessary to think about the: Life and Legacy of Carter G Woodson. Today, we will explore the very ideas I just presented, with Dr. Greg Carr through a lecture he conducted earlier this year that deeply explored, in depth, the life, impact, legacy & intellectual genealogy of Carter G Woodson. Greg Carr is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University as well as Adjunct Faculty at the Howard School of Law. He holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University and a JD from the Ohio State University College of Law. His work has appeared in, The African American Studies Reader, Socialism and Democracy, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America and Malcolm X: A Historical Reader to name a few. Dr. Carr is the first Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a former member of the board of the National Council for Black Studies. Having been named Professor of the Year three times by the Howard University Student Association, the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council and the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Association, he has led or co-led student research and study programs to South Africa and Egypt. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Additional Credit: Noël Camille Gardner; See video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEiXx8pwVFw