See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Langston Hughes Story.
Life Lesson #48 – Seek Information.
“It’s never too late to learn.” Those words were very special to a boy named Carter Woodson. Carter’s father and mother had both been slaves until the end of the Civil War. Slaves were not allowed go to school, but Carter’s father always told him, “It’s never too late to learn.” And Carter did learn. He learned to read, and he read all he could every day. It wasn’t until he was eighteen that he had his first chance to go to high school. He studied hard and graduated in only a year and a half—then he went to college. After college, he became the principal of his old high school! He was very proud to have that job, and always told his students, “It’s never too late to learn.”
Then Carter had the opportunity to be a teacher on the other side of the world in the Philippine Islands. When he started teaching the children in the Philippines from books that American children used, they simply weren’t learning. One day, he sang a song for them about an apple tree, but apple trees don’t grow in the Philippines. Carter began to understand these children needed to learn about things in their own country and about their own HEROES. When he began teaching them those things, the Philippine children became proud of who they were and started to learn quickly.
Carter thought about school books back home in America. There weren’t many stories in them about the people who were slaves in early America and then became HEROES. Knowing it’s never too late to learn, he began learning and teaching about important African-Americans. He wrote books about black history and started Black History Week which was the beginning of what is now Black History Month. And Carter Woodson became a HERO.
– Jim Lord