A Look at an Important African American Puerto Rican for Black History Month
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938)
At Seafarers House San Juan, we look back at an essential Puerto Rican figure of African Descent for Black History Month: a historian, writer, curator, and activist named Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938).
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was born from an Afro-Caribbean woman and a Puerto Rican German merchant on January 24, 1874, in Santurce, PR.[1] He was raised in Puerto Rico and the Danish Virgin Islands, now known as the US Virgin Islands, but spent most of his early life living in Puerto Rico.[2]
At a young age, Alfonso experienced a lot of racism. He recalled that a schoolteacher once said that there weren’t any Important African historical figures and that they also have not made any substantial achievements in history.[3] However, this did not bring him down; instead, it motivated him to search for achievements worldwide from Africans.[4] He later moved to New York when he turned 17. He became an active supporter of the Cuban and Puerto Rican independent movements. In 1892, he joined a Spanish-speaking Masonic lodge called “El Sol de Cuba Lodge #38”. He also helped in founding a political club called Las Dos Antillas, in which he served as a secretary there until 1896.[5]
He had many jobs while living in New York. In the early 1900s, he worked as a clerk and messenger in law firms and trust companies. Later in 1906, he worked for the Bankers Trust company and eventually became a supervisor for the Caribbean and Latin American Mail Section, where he stayed until 1929.[6] In his search for important historical African figures from around the world, he contacted book dealers from London, Paris, Havana, and Madrid.[7] By the 1920s, he was an active member of the Negro Society for Historical Research and the American Negro Academy. With his findings, he created an archive accessible to scholars and youths.[8] He commented that his goal in life was to preserve the historical records of the African race to inspire art students and arouse race consciousness and race pride. He also wanted to inspire art students and have this information available to anyone who wishes to see it. [9]
In 1926, the New York Public Library, with the help of the Carnegie Foundation funds, acquired all of Schomburg’s collection of historical records. In 1932, Schomburg decided to return to New York and serve as the curator of his collection at the library, shortly after working as the curator of the Negro Collection at the library of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.[10] He continued working and living in New York until he passed away in Brooklyn, New York, on June 10, 1938.
His work still lives on at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, located in The New York Public Library. The Schomburg Center is a cultural institution that continues the investigation, conservation, and exhibition of materials focused on Africans and African Americans.[11] Those that visit the center will find millions of historical items[12] from writers, artists, painters, and much more. They also created the hashtag #SchomburgSyllabus.[13]
The #SchomburgSyllabus is an archive with new and recent educational resources relating to Black studies and their movement and experiences. They unified all of this material to the Schomburg Center’s collections in the pursuit of recognizing the source and strength of black self-education practices and librarianship. The #SchomburgSyllabus is organized by employees of the Schomburg center into 27 themes to help raise a greater understanding of the Black experience.[14]
[1] Biography
https://www.biography.com/scholar/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[2] National Museum of African American History & Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[3] National Museum of African American History & Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[4] Biography
https://www.biography.com/scholar/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[5] New York Public Library
https://libguides.nypl.org/arturoschomburg/home
[6] National Museum of African American History & Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[7] The New York Times
[8] National Museum of African American History & Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[9] The New York Times
[10] National Museum of African American History & Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/arturo-alfonso-schomburg
[11] New York Public Library
https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg
[12] Black Past
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/schomburg-arturo-alfonso-1874-1938/
[13] New York Public Library
https://www.nypl.org/schomburgsyllabus
[14] New York Public Library