Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture celebrating milestone 100th anniversary

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Wednesday, February 5, 2025 4:12PM
Schomburg Center unveils 100th anniversary celebration plans
Tanya Rivero reports from Harlem.

HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture unveiled plans for its milestone 100th anniversary celebration on Tuesday.

The year-long festivities will include a new exhibition, public programs and the Schomburg Centennial Festival in June.

"Since our founding in 1925, a collection of thousands has grown into a collection of millions," said Schomburg Center Director Joy Bivins. "Our centennial will celebrate what several generations of leaders, practitioners and visionaries have created and made possible here in Harlem."

The center is a division of the New York Public Library. The president says the anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate American history that others want to deny.

"The history of African American people is the history of America," said New York Public Library president Tony Marx. "America is not understandable without that history."

According to the Schomburg Center, the display will feature "some of the most rare and notable items" from the more than 11 million items in its collection related to Black history, arts and culture.

That includes archives of James Baldwin, Maya Angelou and Harry Belafonte, in addition to a legal book penned by a Black public official in ancient Rome and rare oral histories of enslaved Black Americans.

The center's namesake, Arturo Schomburg, dedicated his life to collecting physical proof of Black achievement, to prove wrong a schoolteacher in his hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who told him Black culture wasn't noteworthy. Schomburg always made his extensive collection free and easily accessible, a mission that continues today.

"This is that public library in Harlem, that 100 years later, still says here is the evidence," said Schomburg's great-granddaughter Aysha Schomburg.

The 100th anniversary celebration events will take place from this May to May 2026.

For those interested in any of the events, you can head to schomburgcenter.org.

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