Officials in Palo Alto, California, appealed to the public June 6 for any information on individuals who inserted racist flyers into two-dozen books on African-American history and culture at the downtown branch of the Palo Alto City Library. The flyers contained derogatory remarks about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a call for violence against blacks, according to the June 8 San Francisco Chronicle.
“We stand here today as an expression of our combined efforts to protest racial intolerance in the city of Palo Alto,” Mid-Peninsula NAACP President Janet Wells said, joining Mayor Sandy Eakins and other officials at a news conference outside the library to denounce what she called a “cowardly act.”
Mayor Eakins added that it was especially painful that “someone would violate the library’s temple of learning,” but surmised that such individuals “are threatened by an open society that accepts differences of color, religion, and nationality.”
Police have been unable to identify any suspects since May when the offensive leaflets were discovered by library staff. No other materials were uncovered in a search of other city branches.
Posted June 11, 2001.