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Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library

Arturo Schomburg’s keen interest in documenting the many and varied contributions of people of African descent to arts, letters, and science led to decades of meticulous, patient work as he searched out and collected books, art, and other artifacts. At first glance, this work is a biography of Puerto Rican–born Schomburg, who worked as a bank clerk in New York City by day, in poems. But it is also history and inspiration and determination. Schomburg believed Black contributions existed and mattered and were worthy of preservation. He was a detective, ferreting out hidden history, as well as a collector and preservationist. Among his many accomplishments was documenting buried histories of African heritage in famous people such as Beethoven and Alexandre Dumas. “Arturo saw that the historical record was colorblind / only when that best served greedy motives. / So when genius was black, skin color was left out. / But Schomburg chased the truth and turned up icons / whose African heritage had been whitewashed.” Schomburg died in 1938. His legacy lives on in his work and in the New York Public Library research center that houses his collections and bears his name. ©2017 Cooperative Children's Book Center

Illustrated by Eric Velasquez

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 9-13
Age Range: Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10) Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Formats: Picture book Poetry
Subjects: 20th Century African Americans Biography Collecting and Collections History (Nonfiction) Libraries and Librarians Puerto Ricans U.S. History
Diversity subject: Black/African

Publisher: Candlewick
Publish Year: 2017
Pages: 37
ISBN: 9780763680466

CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 002 Weatherford

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library