The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (135th and Lenox Avenue) recently announced a year-long centennial celebration at a press conference in the national landmark. Congressmember Adriano Espaillat, City Councilmember Dr. Yusef Salaam, New York Public Library (NYPL) President Tony Marx, and Schomburg Center Director Joy Bivins joined Aysha Schomburg, NYPL trustee and the great-granddaughter of the center’s founder, Puerto-Rican-born scholar Arturo Schomburg, at the event. They made remarks after a procession of three Afro-Cuban percussionists led by the Last Poets member Baba Don Babatunde.
Salaam opened the event with a quote from Schomburg: “The Negro has been throughout the centuries of controversy an active collaborator, and often a pioneer in the struggle for his own freedom and advancement.”
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Espaillat evoked the names of the two men who previously represented Harlem in the seat he currently occupies: Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who was in office from January 3, 1945, to January 3, 1971, and Charlie Rangel, who was in office from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 2017.
“The Schomburg Center is a beacon for what we stand for and what we aspire to: preserving, serving, exhibiting, and creating Black history, which is at the very core of the history of this nation, so I’m going to go off script,” said Marx. “We live in a moment when the history of the essential peoples of America, including, so essentially, the African American people, is being denied. Black History Month is being pushed aside. When our commitments to diversity and equity and inclusion are being threatened, let me be as clear as I possibly can: The history of African American people is a history of America. America is not understandable without that history. We will celebrate. We will bring forward that history to remind everyone what the realities of the history of this country are. We cannot accept the notion of pushing that aside and we will not.”
The Schomburg Center initially opened as the Division of Negro Literature, History, and Prints, and houses more than 11 million items and will turn 100 on May 8, 2025. For more information, visit www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg.