Norton to Speak at Dr. Carter G. Woodson Birthday Celebration as Interior of Dr. Woodson’s Home Nears Completion, Saturday
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will speak at the 141st birthday commemoration of the legacy of Dr. Carter G. Woodson tomorrow, Saturday, December 17, 2016, at 3:00 p.m., at Friendship Armstrong Elementary Academy (1400 1st St. NW). The event is hosted by the National Park Service (NPS) and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which was founded by Dr. Woodson, the father of black history. Dr. Woodson served as principal of Armstrong from 1918-1919. Norton’s 2003 bill got Congress to designate Dr. Woodson’s home, located in the Shaw neighborhood, as a historic NPS site. After trying for years to get funding to rehabilitate the Carter G. Woodson National Historic Site, Norton wrote to the President to ask him to include $3.2 million in his fiscal year 2014 budget. After the President included the money, Norton got House and Senate appropriators to include the $3.2 million, which will make up the majority of the $5.6 million restoration contract, the remainder coming from a variety of NPS funding sources. The interior core of Dr. Woodson’s House is set to open in February 2017.
“This year’s celebration of Dr. Woodson’s life is particularly special as we get ready to complete our decades-long journey of opening Dr. Woodson’s home,” Norton said. “With Phase 1 of the restoration nearing completion and the house set to open next year, I will be fighting to secure funding for Phases 2 and 3 in order to continue the interior preservation of the Woodson Home, as well as the interior rehabilitation of the two adjacent properties. We now see one of our goals of increasing D.C.’s tourist economy in sight by bringing visitors to Shaw, just as people from across the country and the world visit other nearby NPS sites, such as the homes of George Washington and Frederick Douglass.”