Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, a writer, academic, historian, activist, and collector played an integral role in Black History. His is a story of a black/Puerto Rican who devoted his life to seeking out artifacts, information, and historical records about the black people. Arturo was born in Puerto Rico to a black mother and a German immigrant in 1874. His journey began when he was in grade school after one of his teachers mentioned that blacks don’t have any history, accomplishments, or heroes. This statement fueled a fire in Arturo vowing to dedicate his life to finding and documenting accomplishments made by black people. After grade school, he joined St. Thomas College to study Negro literature and later San Juan’s Instituto Popular to learn commercial printing. He then relocated to Harlem, New York City, and began teaching Spanish. Arturo was then employed as a clerk and messenger in a law firm. It was during this period that he started intellectual work and activism for the black community. He wrote his first article about African-American and Caribbean history in 1904 and published it in The Unique Advertiser. In 1911 he founded the Negro Society for Historical Research to support blacks’ scholarly efforts.
The pride of race is the medicine to prejudice.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
Since Schomburg hailed from a town that was largely dominated by the black community, he also became involved in the Harlem Renaissance movement. He wrote different publications, among them “The Negro Digs Up His Past,” which was published in Survey Graphic to inspire the intellectual black folk of Harlem. In addition to writing articles, Schomburg began collecting artwork, books, pamphlets, and documents associated with the black community in America and Europe. His goal was to preserve historical records and create awareness, and a sense of pride for blacks. Arturo would visit rare bookstores, and contact people across the country and beyond to collect the artifacts. Much of his collection happened between 1906 and 1926 collecting over 10,000 items. In the same year, Carnegie Corporation offered a grant to buy Arturo’s collection for $10,000 which he used to travel abroad to collect more pieces of black history. The collection was donated to the New York Public Library which remains to this day. It is named after Schomburg- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The African American must redefine his past to make his future.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
Several institutions of higher learning offer scholarships in Schomburg’s honor. One of them is Hampshire College which awards a $30,000 scholarship in his honor to students who exhibit strong academic and leadership qualities. The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Buffalo also awards a fellowship in his honor. Schomburg also helped build a collection for Fisk University, a renowned black university (HBCU). Charles S. Johnson, the university’s president invited him to create a Negro Collection at the library and assist in the design and construction of the browsing space and the reading room. Schomburg had expanded the collection to 4600 from 106 items by the end of his tenure. He passed on in 1938 in New York.