Arturo Schomburg was a Afro-Puerto Rican historian, author, collector and activist. He immigrated to New York in 1891 at the age of 17 and soon joined different political groups that supported the end of Spanish colonization and rule in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
From 1901 - 1906, Schomburg worked as a law clerk in New York. His main duties were to index, organize papers, and research. The skills he acquired during that time would prove to be useful in documenting the history and culture of Black people in the United States during a time where it was deemed inconsequential and unimportant. He had what he called “the book hunting bug.” He purchased books and other forms of media created by Black artists at a cheap rate, because white collectors and sellers saw them as junk. Eventually his collection became so thorough that the New York Public Library bought it all for the price of $10,000, and thus the beginning of the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture.
We all know Arturo Schomburg as “the man who built a library,” but he was so much more than that. He understood the importance of documenting history, of creating your own narrative about your people and your culture. He knew that one day, children and others would try to learn more about who they were, about their history, about their lineage, and created a place where it could be accessible to everyone. His love and honoring of storytelling and documentation preserved Black history in the United States and the diaspora.
Schomburg was also a narrative disruptor. When told at the age of 5 by a teacher that Black people had no history or people worth noting, a fire was lit. He set out to prove that she was wrong, and studied prominent Black people who contributed inventions, art and the like. He is a consistent source of inspiration for me, because he was always pushing the boundaries of the limitations placed on him by society. This legacy reminds me constantly to push the narratives of oppression beyond its limitations, and to live outside the confines of the stories that others decide to write about me or my people. Most importantly, I am motivated to protect and preserve history in the ways that it should be remembered, with accuracy, tenacity and the stories of joy, community and culture at the heart of it all.
