"George Woodson" (December 15,1865-July 7,1933)

Was born in Wytheville,Virginia,three day before the ratification of the 13 Amendment.His daddy,George ,a farm laborer,and his mama,Lena,a homemaker,were two of the nearly four million African Americans who benefited from the abolition of slavery in the U.S..Young George grew up hearing firsthand stories from his parents about American slavery,which probably contributed to his lifelong commitment to justice and equal rights.His first career choice was the military.He enlisted in Company I of the 25th infantry in Louisville,Kentucky,on June 11,1883,claiming to be 21.Five years later,in June 1888,he earned an honorable as a private at Fort Missoula,Montana.He then returned to Virginia and enrolled in the Virginia Normal& Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University).Two years later he earned a bachelor's degree.In 1895 he graduated from the Howard University Law School.By February 1896 George had opened a law office in Muchakinock,a company opened-owned coal-mining town Mahaska County,Iowa.By October 1901,he had formed a legal partnership S. Joe Brown,a State of Iowa Phi Beta Kappa and Law School graduate.Their partnership lasted 20 years for 20 years.In 1921 George moved to Des Moines to serve as deputy collector of customs,a sinecure he held his death 10 days after suffering a stroke.He left a widow,Mary Montague,from Missouri whom he married in 1922.They had no children.He belonged to several notable civil rights organization during his 37-year career in Iowa.The first of these was the Iowa Chapter of the Afro-American Council,which he and other founded in 1900.Two years later he issued a call to African Americans attorneys in Iowa to meet in Des Moines to establish the Iowa Negro Bar Association.In 1905 George answered W.E.B. call to the "Talented Tenth" to find an all African-American national civil rights organization.George became one one of the "original 29"members of the Niagara Movement,which advocated full civil rights for African Americans and was a forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).Ten years later he followed W.E.B. into the NAACP,becoming one of the charter members of the Des Moines;George's leadership was recognized with his his election at its first president.In 1926 President Calvin Coolidge appointed him to lead the commission to investigate conditions in the Virgin Islands.That same year he lost one eye during a successful eye operation to remove a tumor.George also started the Republican Party among African Americans in Iowa in the sense that after moving to the state in 1896,he seemed to become the party's African American leader almost overnight.In June 1898 he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for Makaska County Attorney,and an attempt to win the Republican nomination for a seat in the Iowa House met a similar fate a year later.George remained a much sought-after speaker,especially during presidential campaigns.In 1900 he posed rhetorical question,"How shall we as a race get our equal rights?"He answered by declaring,"I believe that our advancement...should come in conventions."He also believed that "we should own land... and stop swarming to the cities flies."His politics were unapologetically partisan:Full citizenship for the race is impossible without suffrage,and the constitutional amendments urged by Democrats and only Democrats for the disfranchisement of our people in the southland are dampers to our inspirations and deathblows to our progress.No people who love liberty can can safely support a party or a plan pledged to the abrogation of their civil rights."Economically,George was more pragmatic.To his question,"Is Afro-American justified in affiliating with organized labor"?he answered,"Much depends upon the labor organizations;but also a negro should never lose an opportunity to affiliate and fraternize where he can make for himself a friend and secure for the race a lasting benefit."Such spirited speeches earned him a seat at the 1901 Republican State Convention;a 1912 nomination to the legislature,the first for an African American in Iowa history;and the appointments noted above.His achievements seem to have been advancing African Americans rather than self-aggrandizement,for he lived modestly throughout his life,and when he died he left a legacy of legal action and achievement rather a large material estate.