Scheduled events at the Worcester Public Library tomorrow night were to include both Black Culture Movie Night and the monthly meeting of North East White Power — until city officials, concerned that the combination could be volatile, asked the white power group to postpone.

The library is a marketplace of ideas, but sometimes they mix like oil and water.

Tomorrow night, for instance, scheduled events at the Worcester Public Library were to include Black Culture Movie Night — and the monthly meeting of North East White Power.



When the white power group scheduled its meeting, it did so under its acronym, NEWP. It wasn't until third parties recognized the acronym and e-mailed the library last weekend that Head Librarian Mark J. Contois realized he might have a volatile situation.



He conferred with the city manager's office and the Police Department, who recommended asking one of the groups to reschedule. The Black Culture Movie Night — which planned to view the movie “Souls of Black Girls” — had been scheduled first, so Mr. Contois asked the white power group to postpone its meeting.



Russell A. James of New Hampshire, who is a representative of the white power group, said yesterday the group has not set a date yet and is skeptical the library will let them meet there.



“What we're going to find, of course, is that they're going to have another excuse,” he said.



Mr. Contois, however, said that is simply not true. The Worcester Public Library adheres to the American Library Association's Bill of Rights, which states that meeting rooms should be available to the public “regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.”



“I don't believe you counter intolerance with intolerance,” Mr. Contois said. “I'm proud to be part of a profession that has such high ideals about the free exchange of ideas in a democratic society.”



North East White Power has been meeting at the library since November, and typically draws between five and 25 people, Mr. James said. Some of those who attend are libertarians, and others “who probably call themselves Nazis” are in allegiance to national socialism, he said.



Parlee L. Jones-Thompson, who organized the Black Culture Movie Night with her Worcester-based agency, Our Story Edutainment, said she was relieved to hear the white power group had rescheduled, but noted that NEWP will come back.



“There's a reason they're coming to Worcester,” she said. “It's just something that we have to be aware of.”



One People's Project, a Philadelphia-based website that monitors white supremacist groups and individuals, posted the planned white power meeting on its website and alerted the library and others what NEWP stood for. (Mr. Contois said he received e-mails from others besides One People's Project about the issue.) Daryle Lamont Jenkins, spokesman and founder of One People's Project, said it was the first time he had seen the group meet at a library.



“I think they fly under the radar,” he said. His group spreads information about such organizations to “try to diminish their ability to function,” he said.



Mr. James had other words for One People's Project. He said his own group would not have been a security issue at the library.



“We would never, ever have problems” with blacks, he said. “It's Jews, homosexuals and radical feminists who are causing the problems.”



The white power group's website had included a link (now down) to a video of Oxford resident and strip club manager Easton Byfield, who is black, confronting a white patron at the Platinum Premier strip club in Worcester. Byfield was charged last week with assault in the encounter.



Ms. Jones-Thompson, who organized the Black Culture Movie Night, said she had gotten calls of support from people before the white power meeting was postponed. She said she did not know if there would have been a protest outside the white power meeting.