As a boy in Puerto Rico, Arturo
Schomburg’s fifth grade teacher told him that “Africa’s sons and daughters had
no history, no heroes worth noting.” But
in her new picture book Schomburg: The
Man Who Built a Library (Candlewick, 2017), Carole Boston Weatherford writes,
“After that teacher dismissed
his people’s past,
did the twinkle leave
Arturo’s eyes
like a candle blown out in
the dark?
No, the twinkle never left.
It grew into a spark.”
That spark led Schomburg to
collect a life’s worth of books, letters, art and prints that told the story of
African accomplishments all over the world, especially Africans who came to the
New World – like Toussaint Louverture who led a slave revolt in Haiti and Paul
Cuffee who was one of the richest black men in early America. Schomburg found
African roots in the family trees of naturalist John James Audubon and composer
Ludwig van Beethoven. When Schomburg’s
collection outgrew his house, the Carnegie Corporation bought everything for
$10,000 and donated it to the New York Public Library.
This book opens the door for
students to learn and write about the unsung heroes Schomburg discovered but
also others from their own ethnic backgrounds.
· Learn and write a little more about someone in the
book you’ve never heard of.
· Research someone from your own ethnic background who
came to America and made a difference.
· Write a paragraph or a poem about someone you admire –
either from your own ethnic background or someone else’s.
Arturo immigrated to New York
from Puerto Rico in 1891, when he was 17 years old. He carried with him letters
of introduction to help him find work.
· Students can work in pairs to write letters of introduction
for each other. Each student imagines a future job and writes a letter
recommending the other student for that chosen career. What qualities and
skills would be important? What would convince someone to hire the person?
“Arturo Schomburg studied the
past… His mission looked to the future. ‘I am proud,’ said Schomburg, ‘to be
able to do something that may mean inspiration for the youth of my race.’” He
told professors to “include the practical history of the Negro race from the
dawn of civilization to the present time. Then young blacks would hold their
heads high and view themselves as anyone’s equal.”
Schomburg’s collection became
the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. Earlier this year, the Center was designated a national historic
landmark.
· Is your school named after a person? Learn and write
something about that person.
· What type of building or space would you want named
after you?
If these projects are
initiated early in the school year, students can be encouraged to look for
people whose stories are not well known in all their classes.
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