[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2450]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING CARTER G. WOODSON FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 25, 2008

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, during the early years of the 20th 
century, a small number of intellectuals began to question whether the 
United States was simply a transplant of English civilization. W.E.B. 
Dubois, Theodore Herzel, and Randolph Bourne believed that modern 
America should embrace the cultural differences that newcomers brought 
with them to America. Democracy, they believed, required tolerance of 
difference and could sustain those differences in harmony.
  Among those intellectuals of the Progressive era, Carter G. Woodson 
did most to forge an intellectual movement to educate Americans about 
cultural diversity and democracy. For the sake of African Americans and 
all Americans, Woodson heralded the contributions of African Americans 
and the Black tradition. In 1915, he established the Association for 
the Study of Negro Life and History and by the time of his death in 
1950, he had laid the foundation for a rethinking of American identity.
  The multiculturalism of our times is built on the intellectual and 
institutional labors of Woodson and the association he established. He 
should be known not simply as the Father of Black History, but as a 
pioneer of multiculturalism as well. In honor of its founder, the 
Association for the Study of African American Life and History devotes 
the 2008 Annual Black History Theme to both the labors of Woodson and 
the origins of multiculturalism.
  I ask the House to join me in carrying out the work of Carter G. 
Woodson and to celebrate his many contributions to Black History.

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