Robert Woodson


Robert L. Woodson Sr. is an American civil rights activist, community development leader, author, and founder and president of the Woodson Center. The Woodson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and demonstration organization that supports neighborhood-based initiatives to revitalize low-income communities.
In February 2020, Woodson launched the Center's 1776 Project campaign, to counter The 1619 Project.

Life and career

Woodson was born in Philadelphia. In 1954, he joined the United States Air Force, and earned his G.E.D. He graduated from Cheyney University with a B.S., and from the University of Pennsylvania with a M.S.W.
He was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute from 1977 to 1982. In 1995, he resigned after the publication of Dinesh D'Souza's The End of Racism.
On February 8, 2003, his son, Robert L. Woodson Jr., was killed in a car crash. An award has been named for Woodson Jr. by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he had previously been employed before joining his father at NCNE. Woodson Sr. also has a younger son Jamal, younger daughter Tanya, and older son Ralph.

"1776 Unites" campaign

In February 2020, The Woodson Center launched the 1776 Unites campaign, with the support of scholars, journalists, and entrepreneurs like Carol Swain, Glenn Loury, John Sibley Butler, Clarence Page, and Coleman Hughes, among others. Woodson has stated that his central motivation in founding 1776 Unites was to counter the “lethal” narratives embedded in The 1619 Project. "This garbage that is coming down from the scholars and writers from 1619 is most hypocritical because they don’t live in communities suffering," he said. In an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin, Woodson called The 1619 Project’s thesis “one of the most diabolical, self-destructive ideas that I’ve ever heard.” He argued that the assumptions behind The 1619 Project are actually a form of “white supremacy” as they are predicated on black Americans having no agency and being incapable of overcoming adverse circumstances.

Awards