The former librarian of Congress Carl Hayden talks about her shooting Trump star-news.press/wp

Last month Carl Hayden approached the end of his ten years of terms as a librarian of the congress. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Hayden was 14. Library of the Congress of 1802. Years. It was a history manufacturer – the first woman and the first black person who held the job.

Then 8. Maja Hayden received an email, one who thought maybe it was fake. It simply started, “Carla” and stated, “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I write to inform you that your position as a librarian of the congress is immediately degree effective.”

“I’ve never been informed before and then,” she said. “No one spoke to me directly from the White House.”

She said she didn’t receive any phone call – just – just that unique email.

Hayden said there was never a problem between her and President Trump: “Oh, no, nor any other administration.”

“So this wasn’t personally?”

“No, no. I don’t think it was personal,” she replied.

“Do you think it was a power?”

“I don’t know what it was about, honestly,” Hayden said.

Hayden’s shooting can see many as part of a wider story. President Trump pushed leaders in cultural institutions and targeted public media and universities to reduce consumption.

Call to action

Last weekend, in Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. The library, Hayden supporters gathered for the meeting of the City Hall. One speaker, the author of Kwame Aleksandar, said: “By shooting our reputable, esteemed librarian Congress, dr. Carla Hayden, we clearly find the freedom to read, freedom to express ourselves.” We will simply be bold. “

I asked Hayden, “There are librarians, academics, activists, many people in America who are often seen as” silent types “, they are loud.”

“I think they’re loud, and I think he’s so humiliating to throw out support,” Hayden said. “But what’s really, I think it’s part of this feeling that this is part of the larger seem to reduce the possibility of the general public to have free access to information and inspiration.” Free people are free reading. “And so, there was effort to recently to take over.”

The Secretary of the White House Karolina Leavt addressed Hayden’s dismissal, stating that he felt that he did not meet the needs of the American people in search of a child and, uh inappropriate books in the Children Library. “

Hayden’s response? “When I heard you comments, I’m worried that there may have been no consciousness about what makes the library congresses.”

The primary function of the library is to meet the requirements for research from the Congress members – it is not a lending library for the general public.

The secretary of the White House for the press also used the term “DEI”, referring to “variety, capital and inclusion”. I asked Hayden, “When you hear that, as one of the most prominent black people in the United States, what do you hear?”

“It’s enigmatic in many ways, think about being” inclusive “as negative,” Hayden said.

“What is it about?”

“I don’t know, because when you think about diversity, you can put it on your lowest level. It’s wonderful to have options,” Hayden said. “When you go and take ice cream, this is liked by the strawberry, you like Pistachio – you know? I’d stay with chocolate, I have to say.”

A book that has launched the life expectancy

While Hayden, who is 72, no longer in the library of the Congress, Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, which led for more than two decades, has a feeling home.

Hayden’s life life is caused by a book book – “Bright April” Marguerite de Angeli, a story about a black girl and her family. She said she saw himself in that book: “Yes, it was like,” Oh my God, this is me, “she said.” You see yourself. ” And that is so important that young people see themselves or read about the experiences they have. “Because you have seen you in the book. Someone seized it, took it away.

“These are the librarians who fight, that people will be able to say,” Here is a book about our family. We have a family so other people might think a little differently. “Or,” here’s a book that speaks of someone who is just like you. “And because she’s in the book, it’s published, it’s real and it’s important.”

For Hayden, libraries work more than convening people in buildings; They convene Americans around our founding values. And she points to “freedom of reading” – the 1953 American library statement. – As a leading light. “Freedom to read is essential for our democracy,” he said. “It’s continuously under attack.”

Is it attacking today?

“Democracy is under attack,” Hayden said. “Democracies are not taken for granted. And the institutions that support democracy must not be made for granted. Libraries are called one of the pillars of democracy in every community that enable anyone to enter and access knowledge.”

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A story produced by Ed Fatson. Editor: Chad Cardin.