IN MAY, THE Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, located in Harlem, N.Y., celebrated its 100th anniversary. Originally known as the 135th Street Branch Library Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints, it is named after Arturo Schomburg, a Black Puerto Rican from Santurce, Puerto Rico. He moved to New York City when he was 17 and is widely considered one of the great luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance.
Schomburg recalled an encounter with his fifth grade teacher, who told him, “Black people have no history, no heroes, no great moments.” That moment left an indelible mark. He would go on to dedicate his life to collecting artifacts, papers, and works of art from Africa and across the African diaspora. In his seminal essay, “The Negro Digs Up His Past,” Schomburg referred to his 10,000-item collection as “vindicating evidences.”
Since learning about Schomburg, I have reflected on how, as a Latino, Schomburg could have chosen to suppress the story of his own Blackness. Instead, he embraced his full Puerto Rican identity, Blackness and all.
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