Campaigners succeed in saving the name of Dalston’s CLR James Library
Positive result as number of people who have signed the petition reaches 2,500
Campaigners are celebrating today (Friday) after town hall bosses agreed to retain the name of Dalston’s CLR James Library when reopens in a new �4.4 million building next Spring.
Hackney Council planned to close the current CLR James library in Dalston Lane and replace it with a new facility called Dalston Library and Archives.
But the announcement today comes after almost 2,500 people signed a petition demanding that the new library retains the name of the celebrated Afro-Trinidadian historian, cricket journalist and theorist Cyril Lionel Robert James.
Ngoma Bishop and Andrea Enisuoh of the borough’s Black & Ethnic Minority Arts Network (BEMA) led the campaign and released a statement this afternoon, saying: “Following a short meeting between representatives of BEMA and members and officers of Hackney Council, an in principle agreement has been reached that the name of the new facility will carry the name of CLR James Library as per our campaign demand.”
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They said a formal statement with the council would follow and thanked their supporters.
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