Carter G.Woodson was born on December 19, 1875 in New Canton, Virginia. His father James Woodson and mother Eliza Riddle Woodson gave birth to seven children with Carter being the fourth child. At a young age Carter started working as a sharecropper and a miner to support his family. He started high school in his late teens and completed a four year course within two years at Berea College in Kentucky. Later he started working for the U.S. government in the Philippines. After that he went back to college to obtain his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago. In 1912, Carter went to Harvard University to receive his doctorate degree, he became the second African American to earn a P.h.D from the prestigious institution.