[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 32 (Thursday, February 27, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE ``CARTER G. WOODSON HOME NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE 
                      ESTABLISHMENT ACT OF 2003''

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 27, 2003

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, in recognition of Black History Month, I 
rise today to introduce the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic 
Site Establishment Act of 2003, a bill directing the National Park 
Service (NPS) to take ownership, restore and manage the historic Shaw 
home of Carter G. Woodson, ``the father of Black History.'' The bill 
would authorize the NPS to ``preserve, protect and interpret for the 
benefit, education and inspiration of present and future generations,'' 
the home where Woodson lived from 1915 to 1950. This legislation also 
authorizes the NPS to rehabilitate adjacent properties on either side 
of the home to facilitate tourism. The Association for the Study of 
African American Life and History (ASALH), which Woodson founded, also 
would be housed on the site, as it was originally. My good friend 
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) will be the sponsor of this legislation in 
the Senate.
  Congress passed my bill, H.R. 3201, the Carter G. Woodson Home 
National Historic Site Study Act, in 2000, to begin the process of 
making the property at 1538 Ninth Street, NW a national historic site 
within the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. A NPS study, as 
mandated by the legislation, is required before the NPS can take 
control of property. The study determined that the Woodson Home is 
suitable and feasible for designation as a unit of the park system 
following the transfer of title from its current owner, the ASALH. The 
bill I introduce today is necessary in order for the NPS to receive the 
appropriation for extensive renovation of the site.
  I am particularly pleased by the proposed rehabilitation of the 
entire block that is linked to the legislation I introduce today to 
rehabilitate the Woodson home. The NPS would work with Shiloh Community 
Development Corporation, established by Shiloh Baptist Church, which 
owns almost all of the property on the block of the Woodson home. The 
Shiloh Corporation would convert the block of homes to senior 
independent living housing, maintaining the historic facade of the row 
houses.
  As Black History Month comes to a close, we open a new chapter in the 
story of an educator who is most responsible for the annual recognition 
of the contributions of black Americans in the nation's history and 
culture. I have introduced this legislation to honor Dr. Carter G. 
Woodson, a distinguished black American and founder of the Association 
of Negro Life and History, by authorizing the NPS to maintain in 
perpetuity his home at 1538 Ninth Street, N.W., here in the District of 
Columbia, as a National Historic Site under the jurisdiction of the 
National Park Service. The significance of this home was recognized in 
1976, when it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. I 
introduce this bill today to assure that the nation's pride and purpose 
in celebrating Black History Month are not marred by neglect of the 
home of the founder of the commemoration and of the study of black 
history itself.

  Dr. Woodson was a distinguished American historian who established 
African-American history as a discipline and spent a lifetime 
uncovering the contributions of African-Americans to our nation's 
history. He founded and performed his work through the Association for 
the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), which has since been 
renamed the Association for the Study of African-American Life and 
History (ASALH). Among its enduring accomplishments, ASNLH, under Dr. 
Woodson's leadership, instituted Negro History Week in 1926, to be 
observed in February during the week of the birthdays of Abraham 
Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Today, of course, Negro History Week, 
which was mostly celebrated in segregated schools, like my own here in 
the District when I was a child, and in Historically Black Colleges and 
Universities, has gained support and participation throughout the 
country among people of all backgrounds as Black History Month.
  Dr. Woodson, the son of former slaves, earned a Ph.D. degree from 
Harvard University in 1912, becoming only the second African-American 
to receive a doctorate from Harvard after the great W.E.B. DuBois. 
Woodson's personal educational achievement was extraordinary in itself, 
especially for a man who had been denied access to public education in 
Canton, Virginia, where Woodson was born in 1875. As a result, Dr. 
Woodson did not begin his formal education until he was 20 years old, 
after he moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where he received his high 
school diploma two years later. He then entered Berea College in 
Kentucky, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1897. Woodson 
continued his education at the University of Chicago, where he earned 
his A.B. and M.A. degrees, and then he got his Ph.D. from Harvard 
University.
  During much of Dr. Woodson's life, there was widespread ignorance and 
very little information concerning African-American life and history. 
With his extensive studies, Woodson almost single-handedly established 
African-American historiography. Dr. Woodson's research, literally 
uncovering black history, helped to educate the American public about 
the contributions of African-Americans to the nation's history and 
culture. Through painstaking scholarship and historical research, his 
work helped reduce the stereotypes captured in pervasively negative 
portrayals of black people that have marred our history as a nation, To 
remedy these stereotypes, Dr. Woodson in 1915 founded ASNLH. Through 
ASNLH, Dr. Woodson dedicated his life to educating the American public 
about the contributions of black Americans to the nation's history and 
culture. This work in bringing history to bear where prejudice and 
racism had held sway has played an indispensable role in reducing 
prejudice and making the need for civil rights remedies clear.

  To assure publication, under Dr. Woodson's leadership, ASNLH in 1920 
also founded the Associated Publishers, Inc. for the publication of 
research on African-American history. Dr. Woodson published his seminal 
work, The Negro in Our History (1922), and many others under Associated 
Publishers, and the publishing company provided an outlet for scholarly 
works by numerous other black scholars. ASNLH also circulated two 
periodicals: the Negro History Bulletin, designed for mass consumption, 
and the Journal of Negro History, which was primarily directed to the 
academic community.
  Dr. Woodson directed ASNLH's operations out of his home at 1538 Ninth 
Street, NW., Washington, DC in the historic Shaw neighborhood. From 
there, he trained researchers and staff and managed the organization's 
budget and fundraising efforts, while at the same time pursuing his own 
extraordinary discoveries in African-American history. The three-story 
Victorian style house, built in 1890, served as the headquarters of 
ASNLH into the early 70's, well after Dr. Woodson's death in 1950. In 
1976, the house was designated as a National Historic Landmark. 
However, it has been unoccupied since the early 80's, and today, it 
stands boarded up and sorely in need of renovation. The walls inside 
the house are crumbling, there is termite infestation, water seeps 
through the roof during heavy rainstorms, and the house also 
constitutes a fire hazard jeopardizing adjacent buildings. This house 
that is a priceless American treasure must not be lost.
  Mr. Speaker, passage of the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic 
Site Establishment Act of 2003, represents a concrete way for the House 
to commemorate Black History Month, by preserving the home and legacy 
of its founder, Dr. Carter G. Woodson. I urge my colleagues to support 
this important measure.

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