Cabell County and Marshall Students to be honored
The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum at Marshall University on Monday will kick off the 2025 Black History Month celebrations with awards to students in the Annual Black History Poster Competitions and an address embracing the National Black History theme – “African Americans and Labor.”
Burnis Morris, director of The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum, which provides the Tri-State region’s major Black History programs each year, said The Lyceum will award prizes to Cabell County students and unveil the winning Marshall poster as its “Official Black History Poster” for 2025. It Lyceum has been awarding prizes in the poster competition since 2017.
Professor Sandra Reed, School of Art & Design, chairs the Marshall jury, and Dr. Carline Waugh, School of Music, chairs the K12 jury.
The Lyceum, established in 2016, is a name derived from Aristotle’s first school, and it honors Woodson, an 1896 graduate of Huntington’s former Douglass School, where he also was principal, 1900-1903. Morris said, “After leaving Huntington, Woodson became the second African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard, developed the study of Black History as an academic discipline and made it a popular annual celebration.”
Morris said, “Woodson used the association to create the Modern Black History Movement and was widely known as the Father of Negro History (Black History), long before his death in 1950, through this work to reintroduce Black contributions to history books and generate public understanding of Black achievements.” Morris said. Woodson initiated the first Negro History Week in 1926.
Monday’s keynote address will be given by Dr. Cicero Fain, an assistant provost “whose expertise on local history and slavery are a perfect fit with the national theme,” Morris said. The annual themes are developed by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Washington, D.C., an organization which was founded by Woodson in 1915 as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The Lyceum is an institutional member. https://asalh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2025-Black-History-Theme-Executive-Summary-1.pdf
The kickoff will begin at 4 p.m. Monday with a reception, followed by the opening ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Marshall’s Visual Art Center is located in the School of Art & Design on Third Avenue at Pullman Square.