He says, Dig Under That Spot

ARTURO SCHOMBURG CREATES THE WORD AFROBORINQUENO:

NOTES FOR HIS HARLEM RENAISSANCE STAMP--

HE SAYS, DIG UNDER THAT SPOT*

Arturo Schomburg

A collector

His teacher said, no history, no achievements.

That teacher gave him his mission.

Arro-Latinx historian

Schomburg

bibliophile and collector

advocated for Puerto Rican independence,

namesake of New York Public Library's

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem,

vital repository of global Black cultural history

Historian, writer, activist,

African, German descent,

born 1874 San Juan Puerto Rico--died 1938, Brooklyn

Afro-Latin American, Afro-American warrior

Afroborinqueno

Created word

His word, artifacts

His words, here:

History must preserve

what slavery took away

What is luxury

for others, necessary

Here is the evidence

Here was Phyllis Wheatley

her poem of 1767

addressing students of Harvard

Certain chapters of history

will have to be re-opened

Their brilliant offensive

History cannot be written

with bias or counter-bias

Less of the sand of controversy

and more of the dust of digging

a racial motive remains

compatible with science

A reclaimed background

History yields for him

values that this treasured past                              

of any people affords

Came to NY in 1891

buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery, NY

ADDENDUM

Schomburg wrote,

Is Hayti Decadent?

wrote about poet Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdez

Established: Negro Society for Historical Research in 1911

Pres American Negro Academy, co-edited Encyclopedia of the Colored Race.

"The Negro Digs Up His Past" 1925

*"So the Negro historian today digs under the spot where his predecessor stood and argued."

Jim Bodeen, philatelist researcher

June-July, 2020