The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) continues to thrive a century after Dr. Carter G. Woodson and others founded the organization to educate Blacks about their history.
A sure sign of its growth is evidenced in the more than 1,500 participants who will travel to Atlanta later this month to commemorate the association’s centennial during a four-day annual meeting and conference that will include panel discussions and feature prominent Black historians, politicians and artists.
From its inception as The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Woodson — who was the second African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University — was quite intentional about creating a space for both academics and non-academics to gather and learn Black history from each other.
Though the association is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and its current president, Dr. Daryl Scott, is a professor of history at Howard University, individuals outside of the academy have long played an important role in pushing the association forward.
The rise of Black studies “brought us closer to the academy,” said Scott, adding that, unlike other organizations, ASALH is not a professional association. “We have this enormous reach,” Scott said in an interview with Diverse. “Our job is to promote Black history.”
The creation of the Journal of Negro History — now known as the Journal of African American History — by Woodson in 1915 was wildly popular on college campuses, particularly in the years after the formation of Black studies on college campuses.
But outside of the academy, ASALH branches in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Martha’s Vineyard have been active for years, often operating out of churches and community centers and funded by local members. When Woodson called for the establishment of Negro History Week, it was the local branches that carried out that mandate. In recent years, new branches have recently been chartered in Memphis and Detroit.
