Carter G. Woodson in the Baltimore Afro-American, 1926–1950

It is sad that in 2023, we still do not have a “Collected Works of Carter G. Woodson.” Such a series would be a tremendous undertaking, to be sure, but surely worthwhile. Woodson was one of the pioneers of Black history, a trailblazer and mentor for a whole generation of Black historians, and yet so much of his work remains tucked away in archives. Frederick Douglass has had a host of scholars working on his papers; Booker T. Washington had Louis Harlan; Du Bois had Aptheker (and Partington!); Francis Grimké had Carter Woodson himself; but Woodson’s works remain scattered. This series of posts is one small effort to remedy that and to make some of Woodson’s work more accessible.

“Ask Dr. Langberg”: Diane Langberg’s columns in Today’s Christian Woman, 1988–2004

In September 1988, Today’s Christian Woman debuted a column titled “Ask Dr. Langberg.” Langberg was described as “a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice” and the author of Counsel for Pastor’s Wives which had just come out that year. This column would continue monthly for over 16 years, finishing at the end of 2004 at a total of 98 columns.

The column came to be described as “TCW‘s version of Dear Abby–only better, since she’s a licensed psychologist with a PhD, and the director of a group practice outside Philadelphia” (March-April 2000). Readers were invited to write in their questions and Dr. Langberg would answer them in her column. Occasionally, a particular column would prompt a letter from a reader in a subsequent issue, either appreciating her advice, or pushing back on what they felt was lacking. These letters have been noted [in brackets] in the list below.

The Writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, edited by Herbert Aptheker, 1969–1986

Before The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois republished new editions of the 21 book “canon” of Du Bois in 19 volumes, there was the 40+ volume effort of Herbert Aptheker, published over a span of almost 20 years from 1969 to 1986. A thorough overview of Aptheker’s work was recently published in Phylon:

Phillip Luke Sinitiere, “‘Dr. Du Bois Gave Me Complete Access to His Papers’: Herbert Aptheker’s Editorial History with W.E.B. Du Bois’s Papers and Manuscripts,” Phylon 60.1 (2023): 3–36; available on JStor).

Sinitiere describes how “In late 1946 Du Bois asked Aptheker to edit his correspondence,” and when Du Bois moved to Ghana in 1961, he “deposited additional manuscript files at the Aptheker’s Brooklyn home” (“Aptheker’s Editorial History,” 4, 13). In an interesting reversal of future roles, Du Bois even wrote a preface for the first volume of Aptheker’s edited A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States (1950) (available here). After Du Bois died in 1963, Aptheker edited Du Bois’s Autobiography, and in the early 1970s, “with Shirley Graham Du Bois’s support and endorsement” Aptheker reached agreements with the University of Massachusetts Press and the Kraus-Thomson Organization to bring Du Bois’s writings to publication (“Aptheker’s Editorial History,” 15). The result was over 40 volumes of material, most of it published from 1973–1986.

2024 English and Greek Bible Reading Plans

I found a plan for reading through the Greek New Testament in one year over at Lee Iron’s site several years ago, but it was a pdf and needed to be updated each year. I loved this plan so much, I made my own for reading the English Bible through in one year as well. Two principles are at work:

1. Chapters longer than 38 verses are broken into two readings; The whole-Bible reading plan has you reading about four chapters/readings per day, with a few tweaks here and there so that the daily chapter breaks make the most sense;
2. Extra day(s) added at the end of each month in order to build in space in case you fall a day or two behind.

For my English Bible reading I still use a NKJV single-column Bible. The plan is arranged in Hebrew canonical order (Law, Prophets, Writings), and not the typical English Bible order (which follows the Septuagint). I switched to Hebrew canonical order several years ago and have loved the effect it has on my reading through the OT.

For the Greek NT, I read the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine text which places the Catholic Epistles immediately after Acts, rather than the Pauline epistles. I love reading James, Peter, John, and Jude up front, rather than towards the end of the year. I wonder how our theology might shift if we gave slightly more prominence to these books than we typically do. I use this plan to get through the Greek NT in a year, but you could use it to read through the NT in English as well if you’d like.

So, for that tiny group out there who hopes to read through the the Bible following the Hebrew and old Greek canonical order in 2022, here are a couple of plans to print out and check off as you go:

Whole Bible 2024 Reading PlanDownload

New Testament 2024 Reading PlanDownload

Newspaper Columns by W. E. B. Du Bois, 1883–1885

Some of W. E. B. Du Bois’s earliest published writings were a series newspaper articles written while he was still a teenager in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. However, tracking down exactly how many, and which articles they are, is a surprisingly complicated task. I’ve found at least seven different lists and compilations of articles, all of which differ with each other, as well as a twisting thread of scholarship and controversy surrounding the Du Bois bibliography. I’ve done my best to track down these articles, assessed what I believe to be a complete list, and transcribed some of the articles that were previously inaccessible to the broader public.

Carter G. Woodson in the Cleveland Call and Post, 1938–1947

It is sad that in 2023, we still do not have a “Collected Works of Carter G. Woodson.” Such a series would be a tremendous undertaking, to be sure, but surely worthwhile. Woodson was one of the pioneers of Black history, a trailblazer and mentor for a whole generation of Black historians, and yet so much of his work remains tucked away in archives. This post is one small effort to remedy that and to make some of Woodson’s work more accessible.

Carter G. Woodson in the Pittsburgh Courier, 1931–1940

It is sad that in 2023, we still do not have a “Collected Works of Carter G. Woodson.” Such a series would be a tremendous undertaking, to be sure, but surely worthwhile. Woodson was one of the pioneers of Black history, a trailblazer and mentor for a whole generation of Black historians, and yet so much of his work remains tucked away in archives. This post is one small effort to remedy that and to make some of Woodson’s work more accessible.

My journey

(image credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/d1eaoAabeXs)

Recently someone asked me a question:

 I’d enjoy hearing more about your own journey into the work that you are doing with your blog and beyond. How did you get into all of this? 

Gosh, how to describe my own journey without telling my whole life’s story!

Carter G. Woodson in the New York Age, 1931–1938

It is sad that in 2023, we still do not have a “Collected Works of Carter G. Woodson.” Such a series would be a tremendous undertaking, to be sure, but surely worthwhile. Woodson was one of the pioneers of Black history, a trailblazer and mentor for a whole generation of Black historians, and yet so much of his work remains tucked away in archives. This post is one small effort to remedy that and to make some of Woodson’s work more accessible.

“Progressive Evangelicals” and/or “the Evangelical Left”

The “Christian Right” has been in the spotlight in recent years, from Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, to Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, Taking America Back for God, to Lerone Martin, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover, to “Shiny Happy People”—the list could go on and on, of books telling the story of American Christians pursuing power in a vast number of ways. Even back in 2016, one reviewer noted that “Studies of late twentieth century American evangelicalism inevitably focus on the rise of the Religious Right.” Add, since then, this the rise of Donald Trump, the resurgence in Christian Nationalism, the sexual abuse scandals and the #ChurchToo movement, and there has been a lot to “focus on” on the Right.