Former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said she does not feel her termination was personal and that she is concerned there is not much awareness from the White House on what the library actually does.

Appointed by then-President Barack Obama in 2016, Hayden was the first woman and Black person to serve as the Librarian of Congress. The Baltimorean’s 10-year term was set to expire in September 2026 but was cut short May 8 when she received an email on behalf of President Donald Trump terminating her, effective immediately.

Hayden, 72, spoke with CBS’ Robert Costa about her termination during the network’s “CBS Sunday Morning News.”

“I don’t think it was personal,” Hayden said of the firing. “I don’t know what it was about, frankly.”

Hayden served as the CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library system for 23 years prior to her appointment to the Library of Congress. During that time, the Baltimore library’s digital access increased and its African American collection grew significantly to include digital collections of slave documents and portrayals of Black life in Maryland.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Hayden’s termination was because she didn’t “fit the needs of the American people” as the librarian of Congress.

“There were quite concerning things she had done at the Library of Congress in pursuit of (diversity, equity and inclusion) and putting inappropriate books in the library for children,” Leavitt said during a White House press briefing.

However, the Library of Congress provides members of Congress with research to inform the legislative process and does not lend books to the general public.

“When I heard those comments, I was concerned that there might not have been as much of an awareness about what the Library of Congress does,” Hayden said.

She noted that she feels her termination is part of a larger effort to “diminish opportunities for the general public” to have access to “information and inspiration.”

In April, the U.S. Naval Academy released a list of 381 books and literary works removed from its library under direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office, which told the academy to review and get rid of material that promotes DEI.

All but a few of the nearly 381 removed books that dealt with anti-racism and gender issues are back on the shelves after a Pentagon-ordered review last month.

A federal judge on Friday denied a request by the American Library Association to halt the Trump administration’s further dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which funds and promotes libraries across the country, saying that recent court decisions suggested his court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The White House has also moved to take control of the Kennedy Center and issued an order for removing “divisive, race-centered ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution as well.

Hayden said to Costa that her love for reading was sparked by the 1946 children’s book Bright April, which followed a Black Girl Scout with pigtails and her family.

When she was 8 years old, Hayden had pigtails, too. She said she was drawn to the book because it reminded her of her life and her family.

“You see yourself and that’s why it is so important for young people to see themselves or to read about experiences you’re having because it validates you,” Hayden said to Costa. “You see it in a book because someone took the time, they cared enough, and that’s what librarians are fighting for — that people will be able to say ‘here is a book about our family.’ ”

Libraries, Hayden said, are a pillar of democracy that should not be taken for granted.

“As we like to say as librarians, free people read freely,” Hayden said. “There has been an effort recently to quash that … Democracy is under attack.”

The Associated Press contributed.

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