George H. Woodson
*The birth of George H. Woodson in 1865 is marked on this date. He was a Black lawyer.
Woodson was born in Virginia and graduated from Petersburg College in 1890. He finished at Howard University's law school in Washington, D.C., in 1896. Woodson came to Iowa with the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry. He eventually served from 1890-1893 as an NCO in the military.
One of the co-founders of the Niagara Movement, he later became deputy director of customs in 1924, commissioner of the Virgin Islands in 1928, and a representative of the Virgin Islands to the Republican National Convention.
Also, during this time, he led the founding of the Iowa Negro Bar and the National Bar Association in 1925. Woodson was a prominent lawyer with offices in the coal-mining towns of Buxton and Des Moines. He became the first president and president emeritus, both as a hero of the Black legal community. George Woodson died in 1933.
Howard University,
2400 Sixth Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20059
Outside In
African American History in Iowa 1838-2000
by Bill Silag, Susan-Koch Bridgford, Hal Chase
Copyright 2001
Published by the State Historical Society if Iowa
ISBN 0-8033-013-1
