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Library staffer fired after being accused of burning Trump, Coulter books

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 02/17/21 8:04 AM ET

A staffer at a library in Tennessee was fired this month after being accused of burning books by former President Trump and conservative pundit Ann Coulter.

Cameron Williams was suspended in December after he allegedly posted video to his Instagram page showing him pouring lighter fluid on the Ann Coulter’s “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)” and Trump’s “Crippled America,” before burning them in his backyard. Williams at the time reportedly blasted “FDT,” an anti-Trump rap song by artists YG and Nipsey Hussle.

Williams, a local Black Lives Matter activist, was asked by the Chattanooga library late last year to clear the shelves of any old, damaged or untruthful books.

“This is not the precedent on how this stuff is handled,” Williams told The Washington Post. “To be frank, it’s because I’m a community member that’s been speaking for the betterment of Black people for several years.”

Williams was one of several people arrested last summer on charges of blocking an emergency vehicle during demonstrations for racial justice in Chattanooga following the death of George Floyd.

In a statement to the Post, Corinne Hill, the Chattanooga Public Library’s executive, said that the city “has policies in place to protect the public’s interest, and we follow those directives.”

A spokesperson for the library told the Times Free Press in Chattanooga in December that Williams had violated its policies regarding tolerance for all viewpoints.

“It’s our job to ensure that all walks of life have access to information without judgment or prejudice,” the spokesperson said. “Whether these materials were actually destroyed in a fire or even if they were just removed, that does go against our policy. Because at the end of the day, we believe that censorship has no place in a library.”

Williams suggested he had been singled out for persecution because of his race.

“I was treated as a token Black man,” he told the Post. “But as soon as I speak forcefully for Black people, they essentially tried to assassinate my character.”

Tags Ann Coulter Chattanooga, Tennessee Donald Trump Donald Trump