Schomburg Center History
Arturo Schomburg's middle name.
What is Alfonso?
Before she went on to play leading roles in several civil rights organizations, this activist organized youth programs at the 135th Street Branch of the NYPL.
Who was Ella Baker?
This app helps you make short videos (frequently, but not always involving dance) and is popular with young people, but not with the president.
What is Tik Tok?
This poet and cultural critic is the Schomburg Center's current director.
Who is Kevin Young?
These digital tools (short for "library" + "guides") are helpful for navigating the Schomburg Center's digital and analog collections.
What are LibGuides?
In this year Schomburg's personal collection of black history items was officially purchased and transferred to the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library.
What is 1926?
This long time activist, scholar, and educator was a leading voice in the Black Power movement, imprisoned, set free through a global campaign for justice, and continues to be a prolific author. Her books include Women, Race & Class, and Are Prisons Obsolete?
Who is Angela Davis?
This one word response (a plural noun), indicates that you think that something is extremely or undoubtedly true or correct.
What is "facts"?
This award-winning filmmaker is also one of the Schomburg Center's division curators.
Who is Shola Lynch?
This powerful search engine company (technically a subsidiary of a larger company called Alphabet) has spawned a whole ecosystem of popular interconnected web-based applications, used system-wide by NYPL employees, including email, spreadsheets, and more.
What is Google?
The Schomburg Center's only female chief, in charge from 1948 to 1980.
Who was Jean Blackwell Hutson?
This 1970s radical black feminist group, which included activists such as Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde, took its name from a Union army campaign led by Harriet Tubman to lead 700 enslaved people in South Carolina across a body of water and to freedom.
What is the Combahee River Collective?
This rapper who goes by a one word moniker, apparently had a beef with J. Cole, and has recently also become well-known for starting a radical virtual book club.
Who is Noname?
This member of the Schomburg Center's maintenance staff was born in Mexico, was formerly a member of the security staff, and is known for sporting amazing earrings she gets in the mail from her home country.
Who is Bertha?
These two popular Schomburg Center research divisions are also the only ones with LibGuides.
What are the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference and the Manuscripts, Archives & Rare Books divisions?
In 1920, Ernestine Rose hired this person, making her the first African American librarian in the NYPL.
Who was Catherine Latimer?
This author and educator was born Gloria Jean Watkins, has published more than 34 books, and is known by her pen name, which she writes in all lowercase letters to emphasize that it is the substance of her writing that matters, "not who I am."
Who is bell hooks?
This black female artist broke records in 2020 with hit songs featuring collaborations with Beyoncé and Cardi B.
Who is Megan Thee Stallion?
Sporting a smooth bald head, this member of the Schomburg security staff keeps Rastafarian emblems tucked in his uniform and will gladly chat you up about the legacy of Bob Marley.
Who is Colin?
Many NYPL sites are powered by this popular open-source content management software.
What is Drupal?
Arturo Schomburg's most influential essay, "The Negro Digs Up His Past," first appeared in 1925 in this magazine.
What is Survey Graphic?
Born in Trinidad-Tobego in 1915 and raised from the age of nine in the United States, this radical activist and writer rose to become a leading member of the Communist Party. For her political activism she was deported to England in 1950 and founded that country's first major black newspaper in 1958.
Who was Claudia Jones?
This young adult sci-fi book in which the protagonist, Zélie, fights to restore magic to the land of Orïsha, has been on the NY Times best seller list for 122 weeks.
What is Children of Blood and Bone?
This Schomburg staff member has a long personal history in the Harlem community, knew Betty Shabazz personally, and was at one time a jazz singer.
Who is Sister Aisha Al-Adawiya?
The collection of websites known as the #SchomburgSyllabus, developed by Zakiya Collier, can be viewed at this .org domain.
What is archive-it? (or archive-it.org)