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Classroom · Grades 6–12

Arturo Schomburg

Collecting and preserving records is itself a historical act: Schomburg gathered the evidence that Black people had a history worth studying, and in doing so changed what historians could write.

Lesson at a Glance

Grades
Grades 6–12
Time
One class period (20–40 minutes)
Standards
NCSS Themes 1 (Culture), 2 (Time, Continuity, and Change), and 9 (Global Connections); C3 D2.His.10, D2.His.12
Reading
Arturo Schomburg (profile)

Big Idea

Collecting and preserving records is itself a historical act: Schomburg gathered the evidence that Black people had a history worth studying, and in doing so changed what historians could write.

Before Class

Students read the profile of Arturo Schomburg, including the Key Dates and Sources.

Discussion Questions

  1. Schomburg worked as a bank clerk while building his collection. Why might a private collector, rather than a university, have assembled one of the great libraries of Black history?
  2. In “The Negro Digs Up His Past,” Schomburg argued that Black people needed to recover their own history. What difference does it make who collects and preserves the records of the past?
  3. How might Schomburg’s life as a Black Puerto Rican, active in the cause of Cuban and Puerto Rican independence, have shaped his view of Black history as a story spanning Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas?
  4. Why did the New York Public Library’s purchase of his collection in 1926 matter? What changes when a private collection becomes a public one?

Activity

Ask each student to describe one object, photograph, or document from their family or community that tells part of its history. In small groups, students decide which items they would preserve in a community archive and write a one-sentence label explaining the value of each. Then read a short passage from “The Negro Digs Up His Past” together and discuss what kinds of evidence Schomburg looked for and why he believed collecting it mattered. End by comparing the groups’ choices with the profile’s account of how his collection became the Schomburg Center.

Primary Sources

Cite this page
MLA
“Classroom lesson: Arturo Schomburg.” Black-History.com, 30 Sept. 2026, https://black-history.com/classroom/arturo-schomburg/.
APA
Black-History.com Editors. (2026, September 30). Classroom lesson: Arturo Schomburg. Black-History.com. https://black-history.com/classroom/arturo-schomburg/
Chicago
Black-History.com Editors. “Classroom lesson: Arturo Schomburg.” Black-History.com. September 30, 2026. https://black-history.com/classroom/arturo-schomburg/.
Editorial Note

By the Black-History.com editors. Last reviewed 30 September 2026. To suggest a primary source or a correction, write to editors@black-history.com or use our corrections form.

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