The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research branch of the New York Public Library based in Harlem, is marking its 100th anniversary in 2026. Founded on the personal collection of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, an Afro-Puerto Rican archivist who devoted his life to documenting the achievements of the African diaspora after being told as a child that Black people had no significant history, the centre now holds more than 11 million items chronicling both the injustices faced by Black Americans and their cultural and historical accomplishments. The milestone coincides with the United States' 250th anniversary, underscoring the argument that Black history is inseparable from the nation's wider story.

The New York Public Library bought Schomburg's library of 4,600 pamphlets, artworks and books in 1926, as Harlem's increasingly Black population fuelled demand for such materials. Today the collection includes Maya Angelou's typewriter and 840 boxes of her manuscripts, artwork by Augusta Savage, and an early copy of Harriet Jacobs's 1861 slave narrative. Several pieces feature in the New York Public Library's "Declaring America: 1776 and Beyond" exhibition, running until 10 January 2027, and the centre's own centennial displays continue into December 2026. Its curators, now mostly women of colour, say they are proud to continue Schomburg's tradition of seeing value where others did not.