Black Lives Matter. The Forbes Library staff and trustees condemn racism and the oppression of people of color in our community and throughout the United States. Furthermore, we denounce the legacies of white supremacy, and of murder and racial violence against Black and Brown people, Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC) that have permeated this country’s history. Forbes Library will continue to seek out and eliminate underlying structures of white supremacy, and promote racial and social justice in our policies, procedures, and programs. We make this commitment to our community understanding the deep and long term nature of this work.
Forbes Library has formed a committee of trustees and staff to lead this effort, and are seeking community members to participate in an advisory board as we work toward an action plan including these initiatives:
• Continuously promote anti-racist education through the library’s services, materials and collections;
• Hire, mentor, and develop library staff that reflects the diversity of the Northampton and area community; and
• Establish on-going educational library programs that challenge and dismantle structural racism, expose, confront and, challenge our own implicit biases, and prioritize BIPOC voices.
updated July 29, 2020