Dr. Carter Woodson

Prominently known as a central figure in the promotion of African American history, Carter Woodson was also involved in numerous civil rights organizations. He was a lifelong member of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League. Woodson vigorously championed the NAACP's antilynching campaign. He was a supporter of both separatist Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association as well as socialist A. Philip Randolph's Friends of Negro Freedom. During the 1930s and 1940s, Woodson backed other radical and leftist black organizations, such as the New Negro Alliance and its "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaign, which was a reaction to the exclusion of African American laborers from white-owned businesses in large urban areas.