The Mark Twain Library in Detroit opened in 1940 and served as an important community hub for decades, hosting events and providing a safe space for neighbourhood children. However, as the surrounding area declined in the 1990s, the library’s finances deteriorated and it was forced to close and then only open two days a week. It eventually shut down permanently due to disrepair and asbestos issues.
Despite community fundraising efforts, plans to renovate the library were never realized. With no progress being made, the city demolished the building in 2011, much to the anger of neighbours who felt misled about how renovation funds would be used.
The site where the Mark Twain Library once stood at the junction of Gratiot Avenue and Seneca Street is now an empty lot.
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I wouldn’t say auto companies ruined the place, environmentally yes, but Detroit was a center of racist activities combined with a huge migrant black workforce from the south. In a similar way the Republicans are trying to destroy democracy today, the leaders and racist individuals decided to create separate laws for “certain people”. They prevented these people from integration into the city, from getting loans or mortgages like white people could get. Then they stole what property they did have like black bottom and used the police as their agents of mayhem, killing innocent black Americans and driving them to riot to get justice. Unlike today, no one back then supported them that could make a difference. The racists would rather destroy a beautiful city to hurt black people then to lift them up as equals. Detroit was abandoned by it’s government, leading citizens, the state and the nation.