Schomburg, Arturo Alfonso
(1874-1938)
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg also known as Arthur Schomburg (January 24, 1874–June 8, 1938) born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was a historian, writer and activist, known as "The Father of Black History."
A self-described Afro-borinqueño (Afro-Puerto Rican), Schomburg was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico (now part of San Juan) to María Josefa, a freeborn Black midwife from St. Croix, and Carlos Féderico Schomburg, a merchant of German heritage. Schomburg was educated at San Juan's Instituto Popular, where he learned commercial printing, and at St. Thomas College in the Danish-ruled Virgin Islands, where he studied Negro Literature. During grade school one of his teachers claimed that blacks had no history, heroes or accomplishments; this patently false claim inspired Schomburg's life-long quest to find the truth and to document the accomplishments of African-Latinos, such as Jose Campeche and later of Afro-Americans.
Schomburg immigrated to New York on April 17, 1891 and settled down in the Harlem section of Manhattan; here he continued amassing the information needed to untangle the African thread of history in the fabric of the Americas. After experiencing racial discrimination, he began calling himself "Afroborinqueño" which means "Afro-Puerto Rican". He became a member of the "Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico" and took an active role advocating Puerto Rico's and Cuba's independence.
In 1892 he became a Mason, joining the Spanish-speaking El Sol de Cuba Lodge 38, were he was Elected Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge in 1918. On June 30, 1895 he married Elizabeth Hatcher of Staunton, Virginia and they had three sons, Maximo Gomez, Arthur Alfonso Jr. and Kingsley Guarionex.
He began teaching Spanish in New York in 1896. After Elizabeth died in 1900, he married Elizabeth Morrow Taylor of Williamsburg, North Carolina. They were married on March 17, 1902 and also had two children Reginald Stanton and Nathaniel Jose Schomburg. From 1901 to 1906 Schomburg was employed as messenger and clerk in the law firm of Pryor, Mellis and Harris, New York City. In 1906 he began working for the Bankers Trust Company. Later he became a supervisor of the Caribbean and Latin American Mail Section until he left here in 1929. Schomburg's first known article, "Is Hayti Decadent?", was published during 1904 in The Unique Advertiser. In 1909 he wrote Placido, a Cuban Martyr, a short pamphlet about the poet and independence fighter Gabriel de la Concepción Valdéz.
In 1911, Schomburg co-founded with John Edward Bruce the Negro Society for Historical Research. He was also to become the President of the American Negro Academy which championed black history. Schomburg became involved in the Harlem Renaissance movement, which spread to other African American communities in the U.S. He was the co-editor of the 1912 edition of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray's Encyclopedia of the Colored Race.
Schomburg was initiated as a member of Kappa Alpha Psi's Omicron Chapter in 1925 (Columbia University).
He wrote the essay "The Negro Digs Up His Past" which was published in the Survey Graphic of Harlem in March, 1925. The essay would later be included in the book The New Negro edited by Alain Locke; this essay was also so influential on John Henrik Clarke that at age seventeen he left home in Columbus, Georgia to seek out Mr. Schomburg to further his studies in African history.
Between 1931 and 1932 Schomburg served as Curator of the Negro Collection at the library of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee. During 1932 he traveled to Cuba and whilst there he met various Cuban artists and writers, and acquired more material for his studies. Later he became the curator of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art, 135th Street Branch, The New York Public Library.
He was granted an honorary membership of the Men's Business Club in Yonkers, New York. He also held the position of treasurer for the Loyal Sons of Africa in New York and was elevated being the past master of Prince Hall Lodge Number 38, F.A.M. and Rising Sun Chapter Number 4, R.A.M.
Following dental surgery Schomburg became very ill and died in Madison Park Hospital, Brooklyn, New York on June 8, 1938 ; he is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg's work has served as an inspiration to Puerto Ricans, Latinos and Afro-Americans alike. The raised awareness of the great contribution that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Americans have made to society, as result of Schomburg's work, sowed the base for future generations to establish the Civil rights movement.
Schomburg had amassed a world renowned collection which consisted of artworks, manuscripts, rare books, slave narratives and other remnants of Black history. So impressed was the New York Public Library with Schomburg's collection that the Carnegie Corporation purchased it from him for $10,000 to form the cornerstone of the Library's Division of Negro History at the 135th Street Branch in Harlem. The proceeds from the sale were used to fund travel to Spain, France, Germany and England, to seek out other pieces of black history to further add to the collection.
Another collection of documents which belonged to Schomburg, can be found at the Schomburg Center in New York.
The Schomberg Museum
The NY Alumni Arthur Alphonso Schomberg Museum is housed on the third floor of the historic Kappa House located at 472 W. 141st Street in the Historic Hamilton Heights section of Harlem, New York.
The museum consists of archival documents, photographs and exhibits which detail the unique history of New York Alumni Chapter and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. This museum is a tribute to the achievements of Brothers within the Chapter and the Fraternity at large.
Arthur Alphonso Schomberg is most famous for his collection of African-American history and was an initiate of Kappa Alpha Psi's Omicron Chapter in 1925 (Columbia University) Brother Schomberg was of Puerto Rican descent and an illumination of the leadership qualities of all Brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Contributions
Arturo A. Schomburg’s main contribution to black culture was his shaping of a (as Schomburg himself put it) “republic of arts and letters”. Schomburg accomplished this by using the African diaspora’s history in Spain and in the New World. Schomburg’s definition of the African diaspora was derisive to the American perception of black identity. Schomburg implied a collection that includes Caribbean and Latin American societies in the African diaspora cooperatively. This abstract range distinguished the intricacies of the Americas. Schomburg’s collection adjusted to account for United States institutions of slavery and Luso-Iberian caste system. Breaking racial barriers was one of Schomburg’s unspoken concerns. Schomburg’s literature suggests that he was often wary of cultural dissertations which refuted the African culture in Hispanic Caribbean history.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of New York’s most astounding cultural prizes. The Schomburg Center is a research branch of the New York Public Library on Malcolm X Boulevard (what an appropriate location to place this site!) at 135th Street. It contains a theater, two galleries, a lecture hall, and has over 125,000 books! It also contains a large collection of archive dedicated to documenting black history from Africa to America. One of the exhibitions that were featured in the center is an intimate portrait in photographs and texts of Schomburg. This exhibit, entitled “Arturo Alfonso Schomburg: The Man and His Times”, is arranged in an almost chronological order and contains plenty of captivating material on Schomburg. It includes a hand-written book of minutes that Schomburg kept for his "Las Dos Antillas" meeting, an anti-colonist organization in which Schomburg helped found. The exhibit also includes a photo of the reading room of the 135th Street Library Branch taken by the one and only, James VanDerZee. This Library used to be known as the division of Negro literature, history and prints.
The Schomburg Center is like a cultural warehouse of Black history. It is a stores some of the most precious bits of intellectual property and important historic mementos and artifacts. It is part museum, part library, part performing arts arena. The Schomburg Center is a place where every one of all ages and environments, from Ph.D. candidates to grade-school essay writers can come and explore and utilize the centers many resources on Black history. The Schomburg Center today is attempting to further its culture, history, and resources with a national membership, which is co-chaired by Maya Angelou and Bill Cosby. The intent of the membership drive is to help in sustaining and expanding of the Center’s collection.
Schomburg also co-founded the “Negro Society for Historical Research”. Schomburg also became the President of the American Negro Academy. Schomburg was highly active in the Harlem Renaissance. He has inspired many Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and African-Americans. Schomburg’s contributions inspired many by shaping a positive picture of black culture. This knowledge of culture became the basis for the civil rights movement.
Many Blacks and Puerto Ricans can now better understand their own people, the history of their people, and their people’s relationship to the world. Schomburg teaches people that in order to make their future, a people must reshape their past. He taught that no people can survive under a culture, religion, and political principles that do not truly belong to them. In his essay “The Negro Digs up His Past” Schomburg confirmed that the image of Africans was not a true image. That Africans were a great people who did many great things. Most blacks only saw Africans depicted as slaves. Schomburg portrayed Africans as having much history and their own culture. He influenced and inspired many.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg also known as