Blog Posts by Subject: African American Studies

This podcast episode recited by Carole Boyce Davies features a lively letter between friends and colleagues: Claudia Jones and Eslanda Robeson.

From Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, and Ossie Davis to Alice Walker, Kanye West, and Nate Parker, Nat Turner has captured many people’s imagination. Yet 185 years after his death, the 31-year-old General Nat or Old Prophet Nat, as he was known to the enslaved community, remains as mysterious as ever.

In the spirit of October being Archives Month, I have asked four Archivists from the Schomburg Center Research of Black Culture questions about their specializations. Join us on Twitter, @SchomburgMARB, on Wednesday October 5 from 11 AM to 2 PM to ask us any questions about our collections, best archival practices, and the archival profession.

Within our contemporary climate of #BlackLivesMatter, The Green Book guides deserve continued discussion of their value as not only a practical travel resource for their time, but also as a survival guide.

The National Museum of African American History & Culture opens on September 24, 2016. The Smithsonian has decided to name the celebration “Lift Every Voice,” borrowing the phrase from the song known as America’s Black National Anthem.

West Indian immigrants form the largest Black immigrant group in the city and most likely nationwide, though they represent individually small nations. This weekend the collective will come together to throw the biggest party in our city.

The NAACP Papers—an archival collection of approximately two million historical documents from NAACP national, legal and branch offices—are now available online to researchers onsite at the Schomburg Center, and NYPL's other research and branch libraries, as well as remotely.

The Northeasterners was founded as a social organization for African American women in 1930 by Agatha Scott Davis (d. 2002), the wife of Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.  

Agatha Davis was inspired to form this club after visiting African American debutantes in different northeastern cities. She felt their similar interests would be met in a club.  Davis would serve one term in office from 1929 to 1931.

Membership is by invitation only. Resumes for entree 

Jesús Ruiz, Ph.D Candidate at Tulane University and Short-Term Research Fellow at the Schomburg Center, writes about his first ever visit to the Schomburg Center's Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, and his elation over discovering rare gems in our collections.

Kiani Ned, Schomburg Center Communications Intern, writes about the importance of libraries and talks to librarian Michael Perry about the best research practices.

To centralize the experiences and creative worlds of black people in portraits, paintings, literature, and poetry is to engage in black aesthetics. Black aesthetics extend, too, to fashion and personal style.

BAM had its roots in the northeastern United States, but spread quickly to the south and the west coast with the transnational movements and communal exchange of artists like Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Touré, and Ntozake Shange. Literary groups such as Umbra Workshop of Manhattan and

A reading list in response to recent events and to help foster literacy of the American Black experience.

The language of dance as told by black people through photographs in our Digital Collections.

On July 14 The Black Iris Project will perform Madiba—a dance piece based on the life and legacy of humanitarian and anti-apartheid activist, Nelson “Madiba” Mandela. The performance is set to an original score by black classical composer Carman Moore.

As a young boy in Puerto Rico, Schomburg was told that black people lacked culture or history. This was a comment that he would never forget. It contributed to Schomburg’s decision to devote his life to sourcing and collecting black history.

Today’s episode features a letter from jazz singer, dancer, and nightclub owner Ada Smith, jazz trumpeter, composer, singer, and "auto-archivist" Louis Armstrong.

Housed in our vast collection of materials and resources on black LGBTQ identity, which includes the In The Life Archive, are the portrait collections of blues singers Gertrude Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, and Bessie Smith in the Photographs and Prints Division.

Remembering Ali as a champion father figure in the black community—exemplifying strength, confidence, and a love for people around the world.