East Side Freedom Library founded by retired professor
Rachleff taught U.S. labor, immigration and African-American history for 30 years, mainly at Macalester College and Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.
Years ago, Rachleff and his partner, Macalester Professor Beth Cleary, met a couple in New York City who had turned their home into a community space, hosting conversations in front of a live audience.
White families moved out, making way for newly arrived immigrants looking for affordable housing and access to jobs.
"[...] people from Southeast Asia, East Africa (and) Central America began to move into the houses that white people had moved out of, and we could see that there was misunderstanding, tension, fear," Rachleff recalled.
In the two and a half years since it opened, schools and students have increasingly used the library as a resource for research papers.
The space has hosted poetry readings, book group discussions and film screenings.
While the library is staffed by a team of dedicated volunteers, it takes $4,000 a month to keep the building up and running, and it is in dire need of a new boiler.
At a time when schools, arts organizations, community centers and history museums often get their funding from different pots, the East Side Freedom Library is all of the above.