Protesters rally over discarded black history materials
theGRIO REPORT - A protest ensued Monday after discarded black history materials were found outside of a Detroit-area high school library...
A protest ensued Monday after discarded black history materials were found outside of a Detroit-area high school library.
The materials, which included books, tapes, and other black history artifacts, were found after they were thrown out last month.
Donald Weatherspoon, the Highland Park School District emergency manager, said the items were discarded by accident after workers on the second floor of the library mistakenly threw them out, the Associated Press reports.
About 50 members from the community were outraged by the news and demonstrated in protest for the treatment of the materials.
“It hurts – it’s painful,” Linda Wheeler, a member of the Citizens for Highland Park Public Schools, told the Detroit Free Press. “Children need books to learn. Every child needs books to learn about their history. We want our library restored.”
One member of Highland Park’s emergency manager-appointed school board, Andre Davis, resigned on Monday over disagreements with Weatherspoon’s handling of the district.
The discarded materials were found by local residents who say they located about 1,000 items.
However, while some of the materials have since been recovered, residents say other items from the collection were destroyed.
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