By casting aside trailblazers like Lisa Cook and Carla Hayden, those in power send a dangerous message: no Black woman’s achievement is safe.
By Frances Murphy Draper
AFRO CEO and Publisher
Credit: AP Photos
Lisa Cook and Carla Hayden are names that ought to inspire pride. Cook, a world-class economist, became the first Black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Hayden, brilliant and beloved, rose from leading Baltimore’s public library system to becoming the first woman and the first African American to serve as Librarian of Congress. Both women reached the pinnacle of their professions. Both are now out of their jobs.
These were not symbolic appointments or token gestures. Lisa Cook’s research helped shape global economic policy and trained a generation of economists. Carla Hayden transformed Baltimore’s libraries into vibrant community hubs long before she modernized the Library of Congress, digitizing its collections and broadening access for everyday Americans. They earned their places. They kept faith with their work. Their dismissals are not about competence. They are about something else entirely.
When one highly qualified Black woman is fired, you might chalk it up to politics. When two are removed in quick succession, the story changes. Add to that the steady drumbeat against diversity and inclusion programs, the dismantling of affirmative action, the targeting of Black men in leadership, and the caricaturing of entire cities with Black mayors as “dangerous” or “ungovernable,” and the pattern is impossible to ignore.
Excellence is not enough. Dedication is not enough. Even brilliance is not enough. That is the message being sent.
And Baltimore knows this message all too well. For years, the city has been used as a political punching bag — described in crude and demeaning terms, reduced to a caricature of crime and decay. That rhetoric did not stop with the city itself; it has extended to its leaders. Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, has faced baseless attacks on his character and record. Mayor Brandon Scott, one of the youngest mayors in the nation, has been singled out and vilified, as though his very leadership were illegitimate.
Yes, the city has had a complicated history with its leadership. But to weaponize those chapters as a way to dismiss Baltimore altogether, or to suggest that Black leadership is inherently flawed, is dishonest, cynical and dangerous. The strategy is clear: discredit the city, discredit its leaders, and by extension discredit the millions of Black Americans who call places like Baltimore home.
The implications reach far beyond Cook and Hayden, beyond Baltimore, beyond any single institution. If women and men of such stature can be dismissed or denigrated so casually, what does that say to the young people coming behind them? What does it say to every Black child who dares to dream of leadership? The message is not only discouraging — it is destructive.
And make no mistake: this is not random. It is deliberate. A broad assault on representation, on equity, on truth itself. The removal of qualified leaders from their posts and the vilification of Black-led cities are part of the same campaign. They are designed to narrow who gets to lead, whose stories get told and whose voices count.
That should trouble every American. Because this moment is about more than politics. It is about whether excellence will be rewarded or punished. It is about whether truth will be preserved or sanitized. It is about whether our children will inherit institutions that reflect the richness of this country or a stripped-down version of history designed to comfort the powerful.
If this can happen to Lisa Cook and Carla Hayden — women who shattered ceilings and redefined excellence; if it can happen to leaders like Wes Moore and Brandon Scott — pioneering leaders in their own right; then no one who dares to disagree with those in power is safe. Anyone who refuses to fall in line becomes a target. We have already seen that in the resistance of Maryland’s congressional and Senate delegation, who have spoken out forcefully against the purges and demanded accountability. Their voices underscore the point: this is not about party, position or performance. It is about raw power.
Competence should be celebrated, not punished. Truth should be defended, not erased. And if we remain silent now, history will remember that silence as complicity.
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Great Job Frances Toni Draper AFRO Publisher & the Team @ AFRO American Newspapers Source link for sharing this story.
