Should libraries even be quiet? Libraries now must redefine what “quiet” even is. A library is a roof over a public square, and it might get loud in there.

Ernestine Rose, who was the head librarian at the 135th Street branch, and Catherine Latimer, the New York Public Library’s first Black librarian, built on Schomburg’s donation by documenting ...

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the largest repositories of Black history in the country.