"Arturo Alfonso Schomburg"(January 24,1874-June,1938)

artWas a Puerto Rican historian,writer,and activist in the United States who researched and raised awareness of the great contributions that Afro-Latin Americans & African Americans have made

to society.He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance.Over the the years,he collected literature,art,slave narratives,and other materials,of African history,which was purchased to become the basics of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,named in his honor,at the New York Public Library in Harlem.While Arturo was in grade school,one of his teachers claimed that blacks had no history,heroes,or accomplishments.Inspired to prove the teacher wrong,determined that he would find and document the accomplishment of Africans  on their own continent and in the diaspora,including Afro-Latinos,such as Jose Campeche,and later African-Americans.Arturo was educated at San Juan's instituto Popular,where he learned commerical printing.At St.Thomas College in the Danish-ruled Virgin Islands,he studied Negro Literature.He immigrated to New York on April 17,1891 and settled in the Harlem section of Manhattan.He continued his studies to untangle the African thread of history in the fabric of the Americas.After experiencing racial discrimination in the US,he began calling himself "Afroborinqueno"which means "Afro-Puetro Rican.He became a member of the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rican."Arturo took an active role advocating Puerto Rico's Cuba's independence from Spain.On June 30,1895 he married Elizabeth Hatcher of Staunton,Virginia.She had come to New York as part of a wave migration from the South that would increase in the 20th century and be known as the Great Migration.They had three sons:Maximo Gomez,Arthur Alfonso Jr,and Kingsley Guarionex.After Elizabeth died in 1900.Arturo married Elizabeth Morrow Taylor of Williamsburg,North Carolina.They were married on March 17,1902,and had two son:Reginald Stanton and Nathaniel Jose.In 1896,Arturo began teaching Spanish in New York.From 1901 to 1906 he 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,and held that until he left in 1929.While supporting himself and his family,Arturo began his intellectual work of writing about Caribbean and African-American history.His first known article,"Is Hayti Decadent?"was published in 1904 in The Unique Advertiser.In 1909 he wrote Placido,a Cuban Martyr,short pamphlet about the poet and independence fighter Gabriel de la Conceepcion Valdez.In 1911 Arturo co-founded with John Edward Bruce the Negro Society for Historical Research,to create an institute to support scholarly efforts.For the first time it brought together African,West Indian and African-American scholars.Arturo was later to became the President of the American Negro Academy,founded in Washington,DC in 1874,which championed black history and literature.This was a period of founding of societies to encourage scholarship in African American history.In 1915,Dr.Carter G.Woodson co-founded the association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History)and began publishing the Journal of Negro History.He became involved in the Harlem Renaissance movement,which spread to other African-American communities in the U.S.The concentration of blacks in Harlem from across the US and Caribbean led to a flowering of arts,intellectual and political movements.He was the co-editor of the 1912 edition Daniel Alexander Payne Murray's Encyclopedia of the Colored Race.In March 1925 Arturo published his essay "The Negro Digs Up his Past"in an issue of the Survey Graphic devoted to the intellectual life of Harlem.It had widespread distribution and influence.The autodidact historian John Henrik Clarke told of being so inspired by the essay that at age seventeen he left home in Columbus, Georgia to seek out Mr. Schomburg to futher his studies in African history.Alain Locke included the essay in his edition collection The New Negro.After the New York Public Library purchased his extensive collection of literature,art,named in his honor,at the 135th Street Branch (Harlem) of the Library.It was later renamed the Arthur the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.Between 1931 and 1932 Arturo served as Curator of the Negro Collection at the Library of Fisk University,Nashville,Tennessee,helping direct their acquisition of materials.In 1932 he traveled to Cuba.While there he met various Cuban artist and writers,and acquired more material for his studies.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,Free and Accepted Masons (F.A.M.) and Rising Sun Chapter Number 4, R.A.M.Following dental surgery, Arturo became ill and died in Madison Park Hospital,Brooklyn,New York.He is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.