Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
From Philosopedia
Master Schomburg, El Sol de Cuba Lodge #38, Free and Accepted Masons
Arthur A(lfonso) Schomburg (24 January 1874 - 10 June 1938)
Schomburg, a Puerto Rican educator and social reformer, was an important person in the social and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Because of his efforts, New York City has the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801.
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Schomburg's Youth
According to biographer John Anthony Lugo , Schomburg's parents were Carlos Federico Schomburg, a Mestizo merchant whose father was German, and Maria Josefa, a Puerto Rican and Taino Indian whose mother was from the Danish Virgin Islands. He was educated at the Instituto Popular in San Juan, later living with his mother's relatives in the Danish-ruled Virgin Islands and obtaining his university education at Saint Thomas College. Lugo found that by Schomburg's own account,
- it was when he was in the fifth grade in Puerto Rico that a history instructor of European decent asserted that people of color had no history, no heroes, no great moments, and no notable accomplishments. It was this instructor's racist statement and his own interest in history that created and drove young Schomburg's obsession with making black history "less a matter of argument and more a matter of fact." (Schomburg, The Negro Digs Up His Past, 1925). Arturo Alfonso Schomburg thus embarked on a lifelong quest to correct misinformation and to educate the general public by discovering, detailing, documenting and disseminating information and artifacts concerning the culture, history, art, and achievements of people of the African Diaspora. During his quest, he amassed a comprehensive and unique collection of ten thousand items from the four comers of the world.
It became Schomburg's objective to disprove that the black race was inferior, and he wrote,
- Generation after generation, mankind is taught a false history, a history which excludes the contributions and influence of the African people and their descendants.
Schomburg's Early Inspirations
By reading widely, he became particularly inspired by Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture, Puerto Rican educator Rafael Cordero Molina, Afro-Puerto Rican painter José Campeche, and the Afro-Cuban general, Antonio Maceo. Observed Lugo,
- Schomburg's identification with the political philosophy of Antonio Maceo grew and he became increasingly involved in the liberation movements of Puerto Rico and Cuba. He identified strongly with the ideals and philosophy of his famous political mentor, Ramón Emeterio Betances, a prestigious Puerto Rican educator and intellectual, and with the Cuban dissidents, José Martí and Máximo Gómez. Schomburg was labeled a militant activist at a time when there was a great deal of pressure from the Spanish authorities on the island to dispel any form of political dissidence. He believed resolutely in the sovereignty of Puerto Rico—that Puerto Rico should be neither a colony of Spain nor the United States.
Becoming a Freemason
Schomburg in 1891 moved to Manhattan's Lower East Side, meeting Caribbean and Latin American blacks who had settled there. Working as a printer, porter, and bellhop, he attended Manhattan central High School's night program. He also met one of his idols, José Martin, admiring his literary prose and identifying with his radical politics. Marti was anti-colonialist and anti-racist. Inspired by him, Schomburg co-founded Las Dos Antillas in 1892 and became a Freemason who
- joined "El Sol de Cuba, Lodge #38", a Spanish‑speaking lodge made up of exiled Cuban and Puerto Rican Freemasons. This fraternal organization promoted the study of history, Afro‑Hispanic culture, literacy, economics and politics. The lodge also focused on creating educational programs, employment assistance, and cultural awareness in the communities where the second largest group of foreign‑born Negroes in New York, the Spanish speaking, resided. The largest group of foreign‑born Negroes in New York at that time was the English speaking from the British West Indies.
The Harlem Renaissance
Lugo's account of the important of intellectuality in the early 1900s is as follows:
- During the early 1900s, the legendary social and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance began. Harlem became the cultural center of the world with outstanding creations in the areas of art, literature, jazz, and theater. As an Adult Education teacher of history and black culture, Schomburg became a leading light during this period. He met bibliophile and journalist John Edward Bruce, known as "Bruce Grit", who introduced Schomburg to the African American intellectual community. Arturo Schomburg gained a reputation for his passionate conviction to Black causes. He belonged to 30 black organizations, such as the Urban League, the NAACP, and the Negro Writers Guild. As time went on, however, he became disenchanted with the groups. He found that the many educated American Blacks in New York strongly resented foreign‑born Blacks. He resigned his memberships and removed himself from the limelight for nearly a year. Schomburg confessed to having a love‑hate relationship with black organizations and Black American intelligentsia. He often felt scrutinized, overlooked and unaccepted because of his Latino background. His spirit was later restored when he met several influential black scholars who encouraged him.
- W.E.B. Du Bois, Alan Locke, Kelly Miller, Carter G. Woodson and Marcus Garvey supported Schomburg's cause and helped him by editing his essays and writings to make them more readable. Schomburg's collaboration with these scholars resulted in the creation of his best works. Schomburg's English writing ability and grammar had been often criticized. In 1911, with the assistance of John Edward Bruce, Schomburg formed the Negro Society for Historical Research. Through his affiliation with the "Society", Schomburg gained the support of a vast network of colleagues and influential friends who enhanced his contributions and provided financial assistance. This financial and moral encouragement helped him to increase his collection and to continue his research of African world history.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
In 1911 he co-founded the Negro Society for Historical Research, later being inducted into and presiding over the American Negro Academy, an organization that championed black history and combatted "scientific racism" of the day. He went on to cirect acquisitions for Fisk University's Negro Collection, which eventually he curated. His legacy was to prsent a collection of thousands of slave narratives, manuscripts, rare books, journals, and artwork to New York Public Library's Division of Negro History, made possible by a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation. Eventually he curated his own collection, now renamed the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and having in excess of six million items.
Where is Langston Hughes Buried?
Only those in the cognoscenti know. But if you're looking for Langston Hughes's ashes, go to the Schomburg Center and look for a very large circular medal in the floor, one with writing.
Schomburg's Legacy
Lugo summarizes his own evaluation of Schomburg's legacy:
- Arturo Schomburg set out on a one‑man mission, accompanied only by his own Latino and African multi‑cultural ancestry, to provide proof of the extraordinary contributions of the peoples of African descent. Schomburg was himself a microcosm of the global issues he studied and integrated. If he were living today, he would discover the existence of many of the same social issues he fought to eliminate. He would also find progress. He would see that his efforts were not in vain and that his philosophy of education, which emphasized cultural enlightenment is being practiced. Today, the educational community recognizes that an awareness of one's culture is essential for developing the attitudes, behavior, values, and skills necessary for academic achievement and positive, responsible behavior. Universities and even some high schools offer Latin American studies, Black history and literature courses. Bilingual programs, bilingual teachers and cultural sensitivity are being utilized in all levels of education. Today's educators realize that cultural education is an empowerment strategy that works.
- Schomburg believed that cultural education could create cultural pride, which he described as the self‑esteem that results from a shared knowledge of the strengths, creativity, resilience, values, formal and informal practices, social structures, language, religion, art, science, and inventions of a particular group of people. Cultural pride continues to be essential for Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities who are frequently the victims of racist stereotypes and negative attitudes. In the words of Schomburg, "What is a luxury for the nation as a whole becomes a prime social necessity for people of color."
At the 1939 memorial, Charles Spurgeon Johnson in a tribute called the Schomburg Collection a "visible monument to the life's work of Arthur Schomburg. It stands for itself, quietly and solidly for all time, a rich and inexhaustible treasure store for scholars and laymen alike, the materialization of [his] foresight, industry and scholarship."
His Family and Death
In 1895, Schomburg married Elizabeth "Bessie" Hatcher, who was from Staunton, Virginia. They lived in the San Juan Hill section of New York and had three sons, Maximo Gomez, Arthur Alfonso Jr., and Kingsley Guarionex. After Bessie Schomburg died in 1900, in 1902 he married Elizabeth Morrow Taylor, a native of Williamsburg, North Carolina. She died early, leaving two young sons, Reginald Stanfield and Nathaniel Jose. All of his children lived with their respective maternal relatives - Bessie's in Virginia and Tennessee, and Elizabeth's in Virginia and New Jersey. About 1914, Schomburg took a third wife, Elizabeth Green, a nurse and friend of Bessie Schomburg's sister, and they had three children - Fernando, his only daughter Dolores Marie, and Placido Carlos.
Although of medium build, he had remarkable energy and determination, as shown by his many accomplishments. Late in 1936, however, his health began to fail. By 1938 although he expected to continue speaking and attending meetings, he developed a dental infection that required extraction. Not responding to treatment, he died at Brooklyn's Madison Park Hospital. A private funeral was held at Brooklyn's Siloam Presbyterian Church, and he was buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.
His funeral's being held in a Presbyterian church is no indication that he was a believing Presbyterian but, rather, that it was a large enough building in which the funeral could be held. Key to his philosophic outlook, however, is his having renamed El Sol de Cuba #38, the lodge of Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants, as Prince Hall Lodge in honor of the first black Freemason in the country. Schomburg's philosophy was tied in with the Freemasons' deistic view, that the Supreme Architect created life but does not control it.
