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.