Final month, Carla Hayden was nearing the top of her ten-year time period as Librarian of Congress. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Hayden was the 14th Librarian of Congress since 1802. She was a history-maker – the primary girl and first Black particular person to carry the job.
Then, on Could 8, Hayden acquired an electronic mail, one she thought might have been pretend. It started merely, “Carla,” and acknowledged: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately.”
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“I was never notified beforehand and after,” she mentioned. “No one has talked to me directly at all from the White House.”
She mentioned she has acquired no cellphone name, both – solely that single electronic mail.
Hayden mentioned there had by no means been any points between her and President Trump: “Oh, no, or any other administration.”
“So, this wasn’t personal?”
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“No, no. I don’t think it was personal,” she replied.
“Do you think it was about power?”
“I don’t know what it was about, frankly,” Hayden mentioned.
Hayden’s firing is seen by many as a part of a broader story. President Trump has been pushing out leaders at cultural establishments, and is focusing on public media and universities for spending cuts.
Name to motion
Final weekend, at Washington, D.C.’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Hayden’s supporters gathered for a city corridor assembly. One speaker, writer Kwame Alexander, mentioned, “The firing of our distinguished, esteemed Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, makes it clear to us that the freedom to read, the freedom to learn, the freedom to express ourselves is under attack. … We are simply going to be bold.”
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I requested Hayden, “There are librarians, academics, activists, many people in America who are often seen as the ‘quiet types,’ they’re being loud.”
“They’re being loud, I think, and it’s so humbling to have that outpouring of support,” Hayden mentioned. “But what is really, I think, part of this feeling is that it’s part of a larger-seeming effort to diminish opportunities for the general public to have free access to information and inspiration. We like to say as librarians, ‘Free people read freely.’ And so, there’s been an effort recently to quelch that.”
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has addressed Hayden’s dismissal, stating on Could 9, “We felt she did not fit the needs of the American people. There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and, uh, putting inappropriate books in the library for children.”
Hayden’s response? “When I heard those comments, I was concerned that there might not have been as much of an awareness of what the Library of Congress does.”
The library’s main operate is to fulfil analysis requests from members of Congress – it’s not a lending library for most of the people.
The White Home press secretary additionally used the time period “DEI,” referring to “diversity, equity and inclusion.” I requested Hayden, “When you hear that, as one of the most prominent Black women in the United States, what do you hear?”
“It’s been puzzling in many ways, to think about being ‘inclusive’ as a negative,” Hayden mentioned.
“What’s that all about?”
“I don’t know, because when you think about diversity, you can put it to its lowest level. It’s wonderful to have options,” Hayden mentioned. “When you go and get ice cream, you know, this one likes strawberry, this one likes pistachio – you know? I would stay with the chocolate, I must say.”
The e-book that sparked a lifetime of studying
Whereas Hayden, who’s 72, is not on the Library of Congress, the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, which she led for over twenty years, has the texture of house.
Hayden’s lifetime of studying was sparked by a library e-book – “Bright April” by Marguerite De Angeli, the story of a Black lady and her household. She mentioned she noticed herself in that e-book: “Yeah, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is me,’” she said. “You see yourself. And that’s why it’s so essential for younger folks to see themselves, or to examine experiences that they’re having. ‘Cause it validates you, because you’ve seen it in a e-book. Someone took the time, anyone cared sufficient.
“That’s what librarians are fighting for, that people will be able to say, ‘Here’s a book about our family. We have a family that other people might think is a little different.’ Or, ‘Here’s a book that talks about someone that’s just like you.’ And because it’s in a book, it’s been published, it means that it’s real and it’s important.”
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For Hayden, libraries do greater than convene folks in buildings; they convene People round our founding values. And she or he factors to “Freedom to Read” – the 1953 assertion by the American Library Affiliation – as a guiding gentle. “The freedom to read is essential to our democracy,” it mentioned. “It is continuously under attack.”
Is it underneath assault in the present day?
“Democracy is under attack,” Hayden mentioned. “Democracies are not to be taken for granted. And the institutions that support democracy should not be taken for granted. And so, that’s what the concern is about libraries and museums. It’s part of a fabric. Think of it as an infrastructure that holds up – the libraries have been called one of the pillars of democracy, that you have these institutions in every community that allow anyone to come in and access knowledge.”
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Story produced by Ed Forgotson. Editor: Chad Cardin.
