“Libraries gave us power” was the opening line from the Manic Street Preachers’ first major hit ‘A Design for Life’, and reflected their pride in their working-class upbringing in industrial South Wales, the line being inspired by the main entrance to the Central Library in Newport which contains an inscription of the said legend. The library was built for the poor of the town around the turn of the 20th century, a first class public facility to enable those less fortunate to better themselves, the provision of the building driven forward by the local Labour movement, hence the inscription: “libraries gave us power”. - David Proudlove
(via vklj)
