In the midst of changes in the national archives, the Carter library cancels a civil rights book event

Three book events at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta were suddenly canceled at the end of the week, which raised whether the leadership changes in the national archives and the administration of the recordings affected programming in the 13 libraries presidential elections he supervises.

The events, which presented book authors on climate change, homelessness and the civil rights movement, were planned for months earlier. But this week, the authors were informed that they should move to other sites and the events have been deleted from the Library website.

Among the affected authors was Elaine Weiss, whose new book, “Spell Freedom: underground schools that have built the civil rights movement”, “ tell the story of the Highlander Folk School. In the 1950s, he began to organize “citizenship schools” where black southerners were trained to succeed in the literacy tests of the Jim Crow era designed to prevent them from voting.

In an interview, Ms. Weiss said the event was organized in November. But Thursday afternoon, she said, her publicist at Simon & Schuster informed him that he had been told that it could not go ahead because the library, which faced cuts Staff, now needs Washington approval for any programming. (Simon and Schuster refused to comment.)

Ms. Weiss said she didn’t know if the event had been canceled because of her book. But she called sudden “frightening” cancellation.

“The idea that a program on a book on democracy must be approved by someone in Washington was and should be very scary for everyone,” she said. “The book concerns voting rights and the use of education as a liberating tool.”

The other speakers whose events have been canceled include Mike Tidwell, the author of “The lost trees of Willow Avenue: A story of climate and hope on an American street “and Brian Goldstone, the author of “There is no room for us”, About five “homeless” families in Atlanta. Friday evening, information on the three events had been deleted from the library website.

In a press release, Crown, Mr. Goldstone’s publisher, said the local bookseller helping to organize the event contacted him on February 19 “to let us know that the Carter library should now request the approval of the archives national for all programs, even, even those already scheduled. The next day, the publisher was informed that he would be moved to another place.

Several requests for information sent to several officials from the Carter library have received no response.

The Washington National Archives Press Office refused to respond directly to what he discussed events with the Carter library. But in a statement, he said that he “disputes” leadership at each presidential library to make programming decisions.

“Programs and events must always advance and maintain Nara’s main mission: preserving the United States files and making them available to the public,” the statement said. “On this question, leadership at the Carter presidential library is empowered to make their own decisions concerning the planning of events and programs.”

The cancellations of the Carter library intervened in the midst of wider disorders in the national archives, while President Trump works to redo the federal government by budget cuts and seeks reprisals against perceived enemies.

On February 7, President Trump, who undertook with the archives of his reluctance to return classified documents after leaving his functions in 2021, suddenly licensed Colleen J. Shogan, the national archivist. (Shogan, former head of the Library of Congress and White House Historical Association, was appointed by former president Joseph R. Biden Jr.)

Trump appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an interim archivist and announced on February 16 that Jim Byron, Director General of the Richard Nixon Foundation, a private group linked to the Nixon presidential library in California, Would manage the “daily” archives until a permanent archivist was appointed. (Presidential libraries, which hold the official archives of a president, are managed by the national archives, but largely built with the funds collected by their private foundations.)

Earlier this month, the Library and the John F. Kennedy Museum of Boston suddenly closed to the public in the middle of the day, after a member of the Kennedy family claimed were reductions of personnel required by the so-called Elon Musk Government Ministry of Effectiveness. (The library reopened the next day and the archives provided no explanation for the brief closure.)

A few planned events At the Carter library does not seem to be affected. An event on February 26 featuring the legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, author of a new book on presidential pardons, was still planned. The other events still listed on his website include an event with the African-American artist Lonnie Holley.

Ms. Weiss’s event will now take place in The Georgia Center for the BookA private non -profit organization affiliated with the Congress Library. She said it was ironic that an event concerning the struggle for equal voting rights was canceled at the Carter library, an institution dedicated to the inheritance of a “man who defended democracy in the world ».

“We are told that we must all tell” patriotic “stories about American history,” she said. “For me, this is the most patriotic story imaginable.”