Black librarian discusses why convention was pulled from Indy
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A member of the National Conference of African American Librarians is blaming the Indianapolis Public Library’s Board of Trustees for its decision to cancel a conference scheduled for this summer in Indianapolis.
“They’re supposed to be serving in the public interest, and it doesn’t seem like they are,” said Mahasin Ameen, Conference Co-Chair for NCAAL.
A stalemate has developed between the trustees and members of the public who want the board to appoint interim CEO Nichelle Hayes to the permanent position.
Hundreds of Hayes supporters showed up to a meeting in December after the trustees chose a white male candidate, Gabriel Morley, over Hayes who had been interim CEO for 8 months. Morley eventually turned the job down.
“The board’s actions have shown that they are not willing to work with people or listen to the community and we don’t want to have to fight with that, we want to have a good conference and have people have a positive experience and spend money in our city,” Ameen said.
A majority of the board’s members are Black, but Ameen said that doesn’t mean they can’t be resistant to appointing a black woman to the top job.
“It’s systematic racism, it’s built in, it doesn’t matter who is on the board, it matters who is pulling the strings and who has political power.”
On Thursday the Trustees released a statement defending how its has conducted the search process.
- African American librarians cancel July convention in Indianapolis in protest
- Indianapolis city councilors tell library board to name former previous leader as CEO
- Indianapolis library board met with opposition after declining to install Nichelle Hayes as new CEO
- Protestors push back on library board, advocate for interim CEO permanent appointment