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Queens · Neighborhood guide

East Elmhurst

Visit the Black Heritage Reference Center at Langston Hughes Library to explore African American and African diasporic history. Its community-built origins connect East Elmhurst’s civil-rights history with an operating cultural institution on Northern Boulevard.

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Langston Hughes Library’s brick facade and projecting brown panels beside Northern Boulevard, June 2025.
Tdorante10 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.
Langston Hughes Library and Black Heritage Reference Center

Langston Hughes Library exterior, June 2025. The specialist collection is inside this building; its holdings are not shown.

Understanding East Elmhurst

The Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center opened in 1969 after organizing by the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst. QPL traces the committee to a local anti-poverty organization responding to needs identified through the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The library began as a place for reading, learning and Black cultural information.

Its Black Heritage Reference Center brings together materials on African American and African diasporic experience, with books, newspapers, music and microfilm. Named collections include works by and about Langston Hughes and his writing set to music. Contact reference staff about a particular research interest or material before planning a specialist visit.

Malcolm X’s official biography records that he, Betty Shabazz and their four daughters lived in East Elmhurst when their home was firebombed on February 14, 1965. The family escaped physical injury. He was killed a week later at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan.

Places to explore

  • Langston Hughes Library and Black Heritage Reference Center

    100-01 Northern Boulevard

    Choose a cultural program or ask the reference center about its reading and research collections. This is an operating community library and cultural center. QPL lists wheelchair access; specialist reference requests can be directed to the center through its collection page.

  • East Elmhurst Library

    95-06 Astoria Boulevard

    This separate branch offers reading, computers and public programs. Check its own calendar and hours.

Planning a visit

QPL uses Corona in Langston Hughes’ postal address. Use the Langston Hughes branch for the Black Heritage Reference Center; East Elmhurst Library is a separate branch.

Check the selected branch’s current hours and registration instructions. Contact the Black Heritage Reference Center about specific research materials. Malcolm X’s former residence is historical context here; a current public museum opening at the home has not been verified.

Sources and visitor information