African American History Carter G Woodson’s Negro History Bulletin Issues 1941 to 1949 Documenting Black Historical Education

Negro History Bulletin

Archive

Woodson, Carter G. The Negro History Bulletin. These mid-twentieth century periodicals document the institutionalization of African American historical scholarship and pedagogy under the leadership of Carter G. Woodson, whose work established Black history as a formal field of study in the United States. Issued between 1941 and 1949, these issues provide primary evidence of how African American history was researched, interpreted, and disseminated during a period shaped by World War II, migration, and ongoing struggles for civil rights. Founded in 1937 at the urging of Mary McLeod Bethune, the Negro History Bulletin functioned as an educational tool for teachers and students, presenting accessible scholarship on African American life, the African diaspora, and global Black history. Editorial direction under Woodson emphasized correcting omissions in dominant historical narratives and foregrounding Black agency, with content ranging from slavery and Reconstruction to contemporary wartime contributions and cultural production.

Woodson, Carter G. (ed.). The Negro History Bulletin. Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1941–1949. Seven issues. Quarto. Stapled wrappers.
Archive of seven issues spanning April 1941 through June 1949, each approximately 20–22 pages and measuring 8.5 x 11 inches, illustrated with black and white photographs and line drawings. Contents include: [1] April 1941 issue with articles on the Underground Railroad, Black communities in Canada, and book reviews; [2] May 1944 issue addressing World War II and African American participation across military and civilian life; [3] March 1945 issue featuring Sojourner Truth, labor equality, free Black populations in antebellum Alabama, and racial violence; [4] May 1945 issue examining the Department of Negro Affairs and early American attitudes toward slavery; [5] May 1947 issue including studies of formerly enslaved families such as the Loguens and Tanners, suffrage in the South, and profiles of Black educators; [6] January 1949 issue with articles on education in Haiti, the Negro Little Theatre Movement, Negro spirituals, and a biography of Frederick Douglass; [7] June 1949 issue addressing intersections of Jewish and Black history, modernization in the Virgin Islands, regional Black history in Maryland and Virginia, and educational policy.

These issues were produced during a formative period in the expansion of African American historical consciousness, when Woodson’s efforts challenged the exclusion of Black experiences from mainstream curricula and scholarly discourse. The Negro History Bulletin operated as a bridge between academic research and classroom instruction, shaping generations of teachers and students and contributing to the eventual institutionalization of Black Studies programs in the later twentieth century. The publication continues today as the Black History Bulletin, recognized as the longest continuously published journal for practitioners in the field. Clean pages with light handling wear; fragile binding to the earliest issue and a punch hole to the upper corner of the June 1949 issue; overall very good condition. The archive provides a concentrated record of early African American historiography and educational practice during a critical period of intellectual and social transformation.

Item #21168

Price: $880.00