The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) and the Friends of the Monteith Library celebrate our victory and announce to the community that the Lincoln Library has reopened.
When the Library Commission closed four library branches last December 22, BAMN led an occupation of the Lincoln Library to keep it open. Our determined action, followed by picketing and discouraging trucks from removing books and other library materials from the closed libraries, led the Library Commission to reopen both Monteith and Lincoln libraries, on a part-time basis, with support from sister branches Chandler Park and Wilder, whose hours were reduced to mirror those of Monteith and Lincoln.
“Direct, collective action to save our libraries, our schools and our neighborhoods, is the only effective way to stop Detroit from being dismantled,” stated Joyce Schon, BAMN organizer. “BAMN will continue to organize and act to save our libraries, our schools and our homes,” Schon continued. “As more and more young people act, the new civil rights movement will get bigger, and stronger, and will win more public resources for Detroit, so that all our libraries can again be fully staffed and available for more hours,” Schon concluded.
