Robert Woodson

Woodson was born in Philadelphia. His father died soon after and Woodson and his four siblings were raised by his mother. In 1954 he dropped out of high school to join the Air Force. While in the Air Force he passed the GED tests. After leaving the Air Force he went on to graduate from Cheyney University in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and then from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 with a Master of Social Work.[3]

In 1977 Woodson married Ellen Hylton, and together they have raised four children: Robert Woodson Jr., Jamal Woodson, Tanya Woodson-Monestel, and Ralph Woodson.[3] On February 8, 2003, his son, Robert L. Woodson Jr., was killed in an automobile accident.[4] An award has been named for Woodson Jr. by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he had previously been employed.[5]

Robert Woodson has been actively involved in civil rights and community development since 1962.

Woodson's strategy of neighborhood empowerment is to seek solutions to the problems of low-income communities among what he calls the social entrepreneurs that are indigenous to these communities. Rather than a poverty program directed by some government agency, Woodson's program seeks out families in these troubled neighborhoods that have prospered and persevered to learn from their success.[7]

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, Wilfred Reilly, Robert Cherry, and Coleman Hughes, among others.[11] Woodson has stated that his central motivation in founding 1776 Unites was to counter the "lethal" narratives embedded in the 1619 Project.[12] "This garbage that is coming down from the scholars and writers from 1619 is most hypocritical because they don't live in communities [that are] 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".[12] 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.[13]

• 1990 MacArthur Fellows Program MacArthur "Genius" award[14]
• 2008 Bradley Prize[15][16]
• 2008 Presidential Citizens Medal
• 2008 Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Manhattan Institute[17][18]

• "Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers", Robert L. Woodson Sr. (editor, essays by twenty authors), Emancipation Books, May 18, 2021 ISBN 978-1642937787
• "The Left Forgets What Martin Luther King Stood For". The Wall Street Journal. January 17, 2020. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
• "Ganging Up for Good". The Washington Post. August 21, 2005. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012.
• Youth Crime and Urban Policy, A View From the Inner City, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981, ISBN 978-0-8447-2210-8
• On the Road to Economic Freedom: An Agenda for Black Progress, Editor Robert L. Woodson, Regnery Gateway, 1987, ISBN 978-0-89526-578-4
• A Summons to Life, Mediating Structures and the Prevention of Youth Crime, Ballinger Pub. Co., 1981, ISBN 978-0-88410-826-9
• The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods, Simon and Schuster, 1998, ISBN 978-0-684-82742-1
• Black Perspectives on Crime and the Criminal Justice System: A Symposium, editor Robert L. Woodson, G. K. Hall, 1977, ISBN 978-0-8161-8039-4

• University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, Honorary Doctorate, 2012 (Doctor of Humane Letters)[19]
• Colorado Christian University, Denver, CO, Honorary Doctorate, 2010 (Doctorate of Humanities)[20]

• Woodson Center
• 1776 Unites
• Appearances on C-SPAN