EXHIBIT PANEL V - Carter G. Woodson High School

In 1952-1953, Buckingham County officials began constructing the new black high school in an effort to maintain the failing segregated school system. This effort, however, came too late. The national battle had shifted from the enforcement of “separate but equal” schools, to challenging the constitutionality of legally enforced racial segregation.

The board decided to name the new high school after Carter G. Woodson. Born in 1875, Carter G. Woodson lived near the village of New Canton in Buckingham County, Virginia. Although his parents, could neither read nor write he became the second African American to receive a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. In 1915, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The following year, he established the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week and today he is considered the “Father of Black History.”