Hayden has been the librarian of Congress since 2016.
President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday, according to a spokesperson from the Library of Congress.
It is not clear why Hayden was being removed from the position.
Hayden served as the 14th Librarian of Congress after being appointed to a 10-year term by President Barack Obama in February 2016 and confirmed by the Senate in July 2016.
She was was the first woman and the first African American to hold the position.
During her tenure, Hayden prioritized efforts to make the Library and its collections more accessible to the public, including by investing in information technology infrastructure and digitization efforts, according to her official
biography.
With the support of a $15 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, she also launched the “Of the People” initiative in 2021 to help make the Library more accessible to communities of color who are “underrepresented in the Library’s collections.”
She faced backlash, however, from the conservative advocacy group, American Accountability Foundation, which
accused her and other library leaders of promoting children’s books on“radical gender identity” content as well as literary material authored by Trump opponents.
The group thanked Trump in a
statement on the social media platform X on Thursday, writing: “Woke & radical Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired.”
The Epoch Times has asked the White House and the Library of Congress for comment.
Several Democratic lawmakers have criticized the move, accusing the president of trying to ban books.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch,
said: “Over the course of her tenure, Dr. Hayden brought the Library of Congress to the people, with initiatives that reached into rural communities and made the Library accessible to all Americans, in person and online.”
In a statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)
said it was an “unjust decision” saying Trump was engaged in an “ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in
statement described Hayden’s removal as being part of a “relentless campaign” by Trump to “dismantle the guardrails of our democracy.”
“Enough is enough. Just as we’ve moved to bring accountability to the Architect of the Capitol, we must assert our congressional prerogative by making the position of Librarian of Congress appointed by a Congressional commission,” the lawmaker said.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, housing more than 178 million books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts, according to its official
website. It also serves as the main research arm of Congress and is home to the U.S. Copyright Office.
