Inspired by a fifth-grade teacher’s claim that “Black people have no history, no heroes or accomplishments of any consequence,” Arthur Schomburg set out on a lifelong mission to disprove that fallacy. He globetrotted, collecting rare artifacts that validated Africa’s immense global contributions.
Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Jan. 24, 1874, to a Black Cruan woman and Puerto Rican father of German ancestry, Schomburg studied commercial printing and Africana literature as a youth before migrating to Harlem in 1891, where he supported Cuba’s and Puerto Rico’s fight for independence.
In 1911, the self-taught and self-described Afro-Borinqueno co-founded the Negro Society for Historical Research with John Edward Bruce “to show that the [Black] race has a history which antedates that of the proud Anglo-Saxon race,” he explained.
Schomburg’s family relocated to 105 Kosciusko St. in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, in 1918, while still maintaining his Harlem home. In 1922, he was elected president of the American Negro Academy. During this decade, the esteemed historian aligned intellectual forces with Carter G. Woodson, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois, and was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance, associating with Claude McKay and Langston Hughes, among others.
The New York Public Library purchased Schomburg’s trove of artifacts in 1926 for $10,000 and displayed it at its 135th Street branch, where he was appointed curator. He used the funds to travel and acquire more material, which he also donated.
Schomburg’s influence on African studies was profound as he impacted future generations of scholars.
“He opened up my eyes to the fact that I came from an old people,” Dr. John Henrik Clarke admitted. “Older than slavery, older than the people who oppressed us.”
Another colleague had similar sentiments.
“Dr. Ben said that the three of them would meet–him, Schomburg and Dr. Clarke,” recalled scholar Dr. Georgina Falu. “They carried the responsibility of continuing to compile data, writing and publishing to continue teaching after Schomburg died.”
Following dental surgery, Schomburg fell ill and transitioned at Brooklyn’s Madison Park Hospital June 8, 1938, and was interred at Cypress Hills Cemetery. The 135th Street library was renamed after him in 1940.
“The [African] American must remake his past in order to make his future. History must restore what slavery took away, for it is the social damage of slavery that the present generations must repair and offset!” Schomburg wrote in his 1925 essay “The Negro Digs Up His Past.” “Though it is orthodox to think of America as the one country where it is unnecessary to have a past, what is a luxury for the nation as a whole becomes a prime social necessity for [Blacks].”
Regarded as the foremost historian and collector of African artifacts, he amassed the largest of its kind. Today, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (515 Malcolm X Blvd.) is one of the leading institutions on Africa and the Diaspora with more than 10 million items.