Black intellectualism has always been a cornerstone of U.S. society. From Africans skilled in rice cultivation captured into U.S. slavery, to the Black Americans enslaved on President James Madison’s Montpelier plantation who built and ran his lucrative blacksmith trade, to countless inventors, mathematicians, and scientists, our intellect and expertise have long fueled U.S. progress and economic success.
Yet, when telling the Black American story, our intellect and academic prowess are often overlooked, if not outright denied. As high school students at the nation’s oldest private school, the Collegiate School in Manhattan, we wanted to change this reality for ourselves and other Black students coming after us.
In March 2025, we founded the Carter G. Woodson Society at Collegiate School, a Black affinity group that is singularly focused on the legacy of intelligence and high academic achievement that has always existed in our community and still does. With our country’s close to 400-year history, we felt our group would greatly add to the historical narrative and significance of our school.
We wanted to name our group after a Black person who demonstrated academic rigor and high intellectual prowess. Carter G. Woodson, the second Black man to obtain a Ph.D. at Harvard, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and the father of Black History Month, was the perfect person.
We wanted to give proper attention to Black accomplishment and excellence outside of the usual fields of entertainment and sports. Therefore, our group invites Black scholars to speak at our school about a variety of subjects. We’ve also started an academic journal where students can get their ideas published, and we’ve begun a mentoring program where the older boys are assigned to younger ones.
Since our founding, we have been active in fulfilling our mission. Last September, for instance, we were invited to present at the 110th annual ASALH conference. We were the only high school panel accepted for the conference. In our first community service project, we spent MLK Day 2026 volunteering at God’s Love We Deliver. We also organized our school’s 2026 Black History Month program, where we were in conversation with acclaimed artist Derek Fordjour. Most recently, we were invited by the Detroit Historical Society to present in their annual program “On the Shoulders of Giants.” While there, our group was featured on “Good Day Detroit,” the local morning news show on FOX 2 Detroit.
The impact of our group has been transformative. It does not simply serve Black students; it has transformed the environment for all students. We have created a space where Black students can exist without compromise, and where identity is a source of pride rather than alienation. Through our work, we are saying Black intellectualism belongs at the center of education, not at the margins.
This is just a start for us. Through our organization, we hope to inspire other Black high school students across the country to lean into our heritage and legacy of Black intellectualism. We are currently working to create Carter G. Woodson Society chapters in other schools across the country.
We believe we are well on our way to honoring our mission and making a real impact.
Solomon Gardner, Amari Joseph, Tomel Lucas, Christian Pierre-Louis, Tyler McCullough, and Oliver Sutton IV are students at the Collegiate School in New York City.