IMPACT ON HISTORY

IT’S A FACT
by James Sydney

ARTHUR SCHOMBURG – BIBLIOPHILE, ANTIQUARIAN

HE PROVED HIS TEACHER WRONG

When Arthur Schomburg’s Puerto Rican fifth grade teacher told him "Black people have no history, no heroes, no great moments," the teacher began in Schomburg a crusade that was to greatly benefit the study of black history in the United States and the world. To prove his teacher wrong, Schomburg collected more than 45,000 books, periodicals and pamphlets, 4000 manuscripts, 200 scrapbooks, over 1000 microfilm reels of Afro-American newspapers, and 140 pieces of African art. Included in the collection were copies of the 1792-93 almanacs of Benjamin Banneker (Schomburg was specially proud of these); Clotel, the first novel published by a black American; early editions of the poems of Phillis Wheatley; the addresses and broadsides of free men of color and numerous other items.

THE GUYANA STORY

LABOR UNREST (1906-1910)

On September 25, 1906 workers employed at the Bookers and Sandbach Parker wharves in Georgetown went on strike to demand an increase ranging from 48 cents to 72 cents a day. Unlike 1905, the workers decided to stay at home instead of gathering on the streets. However, the strike did not have any significant effect because both Bookers and Sandbach Parker employed other persons, including a number of ex-convicts, to do the jobs of the striking workers. By September 28 the strike had collapsed, but many of the workers, on returning to their work-places, learned that they had been dismissed.