The Oak Park Public Library fired its executive director Saturday amid controversy over her management of a Palestinian cultural event held at the library.
Her actions, those who called for her removal in a petition said, were racist.
Bowling Dixon was hired in 2022. She came from the Newark, New Jersey system, but began her library career in Oak Park.
Six of the seven trustees approved the move. Trustee Theodore N. Foss, who attended by video conference, proposed placing Dixon on administrative leave pending an investigation. The motion died. He voted against her firing. Foss also tried tried withdrawing the vote to dismiss her, but could not, according to the board’s governing rules.
Dozens of people both online and in person attended the highly unusual Saturday meeting, one in which an angry, frustrated and sometimes raucous audience often interrupted board President Matthew Fruth as he read aloud public comments submitted ahead of the meeting and delivered the board’s statement.
“You’ll have an angry mob outside,” one woman called from the audience when the board declined to take a new vote. “You won’t have any peace.”
It was the board’s fourth special meeting regarding the issue in the past two weeks.
It comes after weeks of upheaval among some community members who objected to the way leaders, including Dixon, handled a Palestinian cultural event, eliminated two staff positions, at least one of which related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Others also objected to what they say was an internal shift away from the commitment to antiracism and multicultural work the board and staff committed to and were actively working on. Dixon, they said, was trying to position the library as a place for books only — an outmoded practice — and away from the community hub Oak Park’s library strives to be. For example, she dismantled a multicultural program that, in part, traveled to schools to teach the many ways stories can be collected, such as through oral storytelling. Support materials were given away and the books distributed among the shelves, employees said.
A tearful Dixon spoke in her defense at the meeting.
“It took 120 years for someone like me to hold the position and less than 30 days to have it taken away,” she said. “It is ironic that a black woman who has a track record of inclusivity is being terminated.”
Further, “It is reckless and heartbreaking” that misinformation that also was incorrectly attributed to her — which she denied saying — was disseminated to the community.
Still, she said, “thank you so much for this experience and the joy and the fun and the hard work we put into our time together.”
Dixon also earlier issued a public apology that former staff and community members said wasn’t enough.
“I am sorry,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “There has been a lot of public conversation, hurt, and confusion about our library over the last week. I am accountable for this library and to this library. And I am deeply sorry I contributed to the hurt experienced by community members surrounding the Celebration of Palestinian Culture event.”
During the meeting, Fruth read a statement that was difficult to hear because audience members interrupted him.
“Today the Oak Park Public Library board of trustees voted to terminate the employment of Executive President Joslyn Bowling Dixon, he said.
“We continue to have great respect for Ms. Bowling Dixon’s professional credentials and expertise as a library professional, and wish her well in future endeavors.
He said trustees collected input from staff and community members —both positive and negative — yet what they observed over many months was a “persistent lack of alignment between the priorities of the board and the executive director,” one that didn’t support a collaborative working relationship, something that is critical to implementing the library’s strategic visions and plans.
He continued: “There’s often confusion and miscommunication and distress both internally and externally, and it has critically impacted our ability to move forward together and that prompted today’s action.”
He added that the board is “committed to minimizing the adverse impact of this transition for our staff and community,” and will take “immediate and deliberate” steps toward rebuilding trust. Those steps include surveying all staff to “identify opportunities to strengthen and improve our workplace culture.”
He also said that the board will hire a firm to begin a national search for an executive director.
Fruth assured that the board “will move forward in a manner that maintains the standards of excellence openness and equity” that Oak Park values and loves.
In yet another unusual move, the board voted for the termination before public comment was heard — an action that surprised those in attendance. They spoke nonetheless.
Those who supported Dixon were visibly angry, saying she is not “racist” and is a competent leader. Many called for “cooler heads” and asked the board to wait until a planned anonymous survey regarding Dixon was complete. Several called on the members of the board to resign, while several more called on the board to reconsider the firing.
Shelley Harris, a library employee, said she “genuinely believed” Dixon is the “best director the library ever had.”
“This town, this library, we are not perfect,” she said. “I have been here for many periods of very low morale … firing Joslyn will not bring back a perfect library because that has never ever existed. For the last year, Joslyn has demonstrated the kind of leader that she is creative, hardworking, engaged, present.”
It’s time, she said to take meaningful steps toward repair.
Others questioned whether the board of trustees followed its own policies regarding the firing of an employee.
“The policies are available on the library’s website for all staff and members of the public to read,” Oak Park resident Rebecca Malinowski said. “There are several board approved policies that govern employment disputes. The grievances policy, the bullying policy, the non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy the termination policy, the whistleblower reporting, an anti-retaliation policy. None of these policies call for the board to settle employment disputes between the executive director and library staff.”
Tatiana Swancy, whose DEI-related job Dixon eliminated, protested against comments made by those who opposed Dixon’s firing.
“It is pure entitlement to say that you know what’s best, that it’s up to library leadership management to decide … if you have to try to resolve it or not,” she said in tears. That type of entitlement, she said “is not what this library is about.”
One speaker — the “.3%,” he said — added: “My community is telling me that I don’t matter if there’s harm that’s done against me, it doesn’t matter because I am very marginalized. It shouldn’t be okay.”
Oak Park isn’t supposed to be that way, he said.
“If that is changing, then please put an asterisk next to it and have someone say ‘anybody above or below a certain threshold, we’re not going to care about, we’re going to break the law against you. We’re going to discriminate against you.’”
Oak Park is supposed to have “harmony,” he said, but that is not what he’s hearing.
As the meeting entered its second hour — most of which was spent listening to public comments — audience members audibly sighed and called aloud “New vote! Just vote,” interrupting Fruth.
Fruth said the board will seek an interim leader, and until one is hired, key staff will collaborate to run the library’s operations. No further personnel changes are anticipated, he said.
The board updated its full statement late Saturday. It appears to clarify that Deputy Director Suzy Wulf and Director of Collections Leigh Tarullo will provide daily leadership on a short-term basis. It also states that it will aim to seek an external, interim direct by April. 23. You can read the full statement on the library’s website.
Editor’s note March 17, 7:33 p.m.: This story has been updated to remove an early version of the board’s statement and to replace it with a revised one. This was done at board President Matthew Fruth’s request.