WASHINGTON, DC -- Last night, President Trump abruptly fired the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla D. Hayden, who was nominated by former President Barrack Obama and confirmed with 74 votes by the U.S. Senate in 2016.  Dr. Hayden was the first woman, the first professional librarian, and the first Black person to lead the Library of Congress (LOC). 

There is nothing political about the LOC, America’s oldest government-run cultural institution and the largest library in the world, which only rarely gets a new leader and Dr. Hayden was just the 14th head of the LOC since 1800.  Dr. Hayden won bipartisan accolades for modernizing the Library of Congress and making it more accessible with initiatives targeted to rural communities and online access.

The Trump Administration, which has supported book bans and sought to remove the works of Black authors such as Maya Angelou and historical texts about civil rights and the holocaust from library shelves, apparently gave in to right-wing groups who wanted Dr. Hayden fired on the grounds she is allegedly “woke.”

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a leading champion of libraries who brought Dr. Hayden to Rhode Island in 2019 to host a Veterans History Project event at the Cranston Library, condemned her firing, stating:

“Dr. Hayden did an outstanding job leading the Library of Congress and her abrupt firing is totally unjustified.  A dedicated leader and public servant, Dr. Hayden performed her duties with honor, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to ensuring America’s treasured collection of books, knowledge, and information is digitized and accessible to all.  She ensured the Library of Congress served as a trusted source of information for all.  That is the opposite of what the Trump Administration wants: it wants to politicize the library, control information, and get rid of independent civil servants -- replacing them with partisan right-wing extremists who will be subservient to Donald Trump, not the Constitution or the institution and the American people.

“Libraries are public resources that welcome everyone.  They serve individuals and benefit communities and our democracy.  This is part of Trump’s continued war on libraries: cutting funding, banning books, and removing, blocking, and trying to restrict public access to information on a range of topics.

“The right-wing conservative mob who has President Trump’s ear seemingly couldn’t stand to have a strong leader in charge of our nation’s library for one more day.  They made a grave error.  While Dr. Hayden was the first Black woman to lead the Library of Congress, she will not be the last.  She will continue to inspire and has blazed a trail for others to follow.”