In luminous paintings and arresting poems, two of children’s
literature’s top African-American scholars track Arturo Schomburg’s
quest to correct history.
“Where is our historian to give us our side?”, Arturo asked.
Amid the scholars,
poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an
Afro–Puerto Rican named Arturo Schomburg. This law clerk’s life’s
passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and
the African diaspora and bring to light the achievements of people of
African descent through the ages. When Schomburg’s collection
became so big it began to overflow his house (and his wife threatened
to mutiny), he turned to the New York Public Library, where he
created and curated a collection that was the cornerstone of a new
Negro Division. A century later, his groundbreaking collection, known
as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has become a
beacon to scholars all over the world.
