Hayden has been a librarian in Congress since 2016.
According to a spokesman for the Library of Congress, President Donald Trump fired Congressional Carla Hayden librarian on Thursday.
It is not clear why Hayden was removed from that position.
Hayden was appointed to a 10-year term by President Barack Obama in February 2016 and served as Congress’ 14th Librarian after being confirmed by the Senate in July 2016.
She was the first woman and the first African American to hold the position.
Her official biography shows that during her tenure, Hayden prioritized efforts to make the libraries and their collections more accessible to the public, including investing in information technology infrastructure and digitalization efforts.
With support from a $15 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, she launched the “Of The People” initiative in 2021, making libraries more accessible to communities of colour “underrepresented in library collections.”
However, she faced a backlash from the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative advocacy group. This accused her and other library leaders of promoting “radical gender identity” content and literary material, as well as literary material created by Trump opponents.
The group thanked Trump in a statement on social media platform X on Thursday, writing that “Woke & Radical Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired.”
The Epoch Times has requested comment from the White House and the Library of Congress.
Several democratic lawmakers have criticised the move and accused the president of trying to ban books.
“During her tenure, Dr. Hayden brought the Library of Congress to people, reaching rural communities and making the library accessible to all Americans,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (DN.M.), a ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in Legislative Affairs.
In a statement, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.) said it was an “unjust decision” that Trump has described as engaged in “continued efforts to ban books, whitewashed American history.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) explained that Hayden’s removal was part of Trump’s “relenting campaign to “dismantle our democratic guardrail.”
“It’s enough. We must assert the privileges of Congress by creating a librarian position appointed by the Congressional Committee, as we moved to bring accountability to Congressional architects,” the lawmaker said.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library and houses over 178 million books, films and videos, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts, according to the official website. It also serves as the main research unit of Congress and is home to the US Copyright Office.
