Dr. Carter G. Woodson

G reetings to all of our Buddhists friends and welcome to our Buddhist Black History lecture “There are two Black Buddhas on the Gohonzon.”. The True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin writes in the "True entity of life" Gosho "Exert yourself in the two ways of practice and study. Without practice and study, there can be no Buddhism. You must not only persevere yourself; you must also teach others. Both practice and study arise from faith. Teach others to the best of your ability, even if only a single sentence or phase" Let us first talk about Black history week was started in 1926 by Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson. Dr. Woodson was the son of former slaves and he was born in 1875. There is an African proverb that reads "Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes" . We who are Africans and African/Americans or Black people worldwide should not let only White people and Japanese write Buddhist history. Why did Dr. Carter G. Woodson create African History week? Dr. Woodson created African
history week in order for African people to arm themselves against racism.

Dr. Woodson writes; "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."

The Daishonin writes "only Buddhas know the true entity of all phenomena". If we look at the conditions of Black people worldwide we should understand that Black people act the way they act because of their thinking. What did the Daishonin say about this? In the Gosho "On attaining Buddhahood" reads "if the minds of living
beings are impure, their land is also impure"
. Dr. Woodson writes
"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions".

Let me provide you with a few notes on Dr. Carter G. Woodson and we will get into the theme of our lecture. Dr. Carter was born in Canton, Virginia and as a youth he had a burning passion to learn. He attained his B.A. from the university of Chicago, in 1907. He attended the Sorbonne University and learned French. In 1912 he received his Ph.D in history from Harvard University. His best known book is titled "The Mis-Education of the Negro" published in 1933. Africans and African/Americans; this book is a must for your Black history library.

In 1926 Dr. Woodson started the observance of "Negro History Week". He choose February because February was the month of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12th and Fredrick Douglass birthday on February 14th. We who are Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists can add February to our special month because the True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin was born February 16, 1222. Nichiren Daishonin writes in the Gosho "The Opening of the Eyes" "There are three types of doctrines that are to be studied, they are Confucianism, Brahmanism and Buddhism. If you want to know how racism started you can learn by studying Brahmanism. The Daishonin also
writes in this Gosho
"To have a profound knowledge of this world is itself Buddhism" Dr. Woodson had a profound knowledge of this world and we as African and African/Americans must thank Dr. Woodson. Let us get into the Black history Lecture.

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