Schomburg, Arturo Alfonso, a self-described "Afroborinqueño" (Black Puerto Rican), was born January 24, 1874, of María Josefa a freeborn Black midwife from St. Croix and Carlos Féderico Schomburg a mestizo merchant of German heritage in a community now known as Santurce, Puerto Rico.

Schomburg was educated at San Juan's Instituto Popular, where he learned commercial printing, and at St. Thomas College in the Danish-ruled Virgin Islands, where he studied Negro Literature. In the office of General Roger A. Pryor he read law for five years. He also served for five years as Secretary Las Dos Antillas Cuban Revolutionary part, New York, 1891-6.

Schomburg immigrated to New York on April 17, 1891 where he continued amassing the materials needed to further untangle the African thread of history in the fabric of the Americas. On June 30, 1895 he married Elizabeth Hatcher, Staunton, Virginia and they had two children together, Arthur A. and Kingsley. His second marriage was to Elizabeth Marrow Taylor of Williamsburg, North Carolina. They were married on March 17, 1902 and also had two children Reginald S., and Nathaniel T. Schomburg was a member of the Porto Rico Revolutionary party, New York, 1891-6. He began teaching Spanish in New York in 1896.

In the year 1911 he co-founded the Negro Society for Historical Research in Yonkers, New York. He also served as Secretary and Treasurer. The society's purpose is to serve as an archival institute to publish important papers on black history. He acted as co-editor of the 1912 edition of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray's "Encyclopedia of the Colored Race". In 1914 he was inducted into, and later presided over, the American Negro Academy of Washington, D.C., which championed black history. Schomburg went on to direct acquisitions for Fisk University's Negro Collection, which he eventually curated.

He was granted an honorary membership of the Men's Business Club in Yonkers, New York. He held the position of treasurer for the Loyal Sons of Africa in New York. He was also elevated being the past master of Prince Hall Lodge Number 38, F.A.M. and Rising Sun Chapter Numbere 4, R.A.M.

External Links

NYPL, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html)

The Arthur A. Schomburg Papers (http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/guides/african_american/manusc_coll_schomburg/schomburg.asp)

HISTORY NOTES: ARTHUR ALFONSO "AFROBORINQUENO" SCHOMBURG (http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/schomburg.html)