The outcry began when a small portion of the volumes in question was discovered in a dumpster three weeks ago by Paul Lee, a local historian who helped assemble the collection. According to USA Today, the collection was largely the result of civil rights-era demands to incorporate African-American studies into school curriculums—especially in communities like Highland Park, whose population is about 93% African-American. Jackson hopes to place the books in a community center, but Weatherspoon has instead expressed interest in donating those with historical value to a library or museum. (Of course, the majority of the collection has already been lost to the dumpster.)

Marcia Cotton, a member of the Highland Park Renaissance Academy Board of Directors and lifelong resident, said she attended a meeting in which Weatherspoon took responsibility and claimed the books were discarded by mistake. Her fellow board member, Vice President Andre Davis, soon resigned over the controversy. But Cotton isn't so sure the books are the most pressing issue in the community.

"I would very much like to get above the fray of the controversy and rather discuss solutions to the looming debt crisis facing the school district, the decline in school enrollment and city population, and how best we can work with our city officials and provide a greater quality of life for our residents and quality education in a safe environment for our children," Cotton said in an email. "We can't solve 21st century problems with 20th century tactics."

Jackson, meanwhile, hopes to continue protesting.

"We have a protest scheduled every day this week until we get what we want," she said. "They don't want the children to read, in my opinion. How do you have a library with no books? How do you mistakenly throw books out?"

"This is a modern-day Hitler," she added.

Watch video footage of the protest here, via WXYZ-TV Detroit.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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