F ³: My Lunch With Carla Hayden

Years ago I worked for a tiny Episcopal school* in Baltimore: preschool through fifth grade. We were located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood and our campus,  in a sense, expanded in all directions. We went for walks through the park squares surrounding the Washington Monument to observe the changes of the seasons. We learned not only in the classroom and on the playground but through frequent visits (on foot) to area cultural institutions:

• Baltimore Symphony
• Walters Art Gallery
• YWCA
• Maryland Historical Society
• Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library

Our kids walked weekly to the Pratt Library for story hour and to check out books. (If you haven’t ever been to the Children’s Room there, you should. It’s rather magical.) Our sessions always ended with an opportunity to visit the fish in the fishpond. 

Photo from Enoch Pratt Free Library Central Branch (Flicker)

When Carla Hayden became the head librarian of the Pratt we somehow managed to arrange a professional development session with her. We got to eat lunch together at the library while learning how we could best use their resources to support our students.

I’m mortified that all I remember is how kind she was to us and that we got to have catered box lunches. It was a long time ago. Forgive me.

Carla Hayden, the newly appointed head of a large city library system, took the time to have lunch and engage with us, teachers in a tiny school with no more than 180 students. I’m still wowed by that. She was kind, thoughtful, full of insight and ideas. When she was chosen to head the Library of Congress I was thrilled. 

This morning I awoke to this:

President Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Associated Press

Well, of course. It’s simply impossible for that man to respect a brilliant Black professional woman in a leadership role.  The fact that her job is to champion the free circulation of ideas, culture, and knowledge? Intolerable. If you are Donald Trump then such a person must be purged.

The Librarian of Congress is not appointed by the President. They do not serve at the pleasure of the Executive Branch. As the name makes clear, the role falls under the authority of Congress. 

Will Congress exercise their own authority? Will they fulfill their responsibility to defend the most basic intellectual freedom in the United States of America? What do you think?

Something to remember: the library where I first met Hayden is called the Enoch Pratt Free Library because it was a part of the Free Library movement which began in this country in the mid to late 1800’s. Before that one could access libraries only by paying a subscription fee. 

We are able to enjoy our local libraries today because of that movement. Local municipalities stepped in to take on the financial support, creating our nation’s public libraries. Why? So that all of the knowledge gathered there would be free to everyone. No, a Free Library is not “free” in the sense that it doesn’t cost anyone anywhere any money. 

A Free Library is a both a promise and a gift:

We will not charge for access. We will not charge for facilities and services. We will not erect barriers or choose who may learn, or think, gather together, or improve their lives. 

Across the nation, our public libraries are an investment in the people of a democratic nation. All of the people, no exceptions.

If the President is allowed to destroy the very leadership of the Library of Congress, what comes next?

Village Green/Town² Comments

*Grace and Saint Peter’s School/The Wilkes School: 1940-2020