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The Rappin' Rep: The Life and Work of Major Owens

Major Robert Odell Owens represented the people of Brooklyn's 9th Congressional district in the US House of Representatives for nearly 25 years, succeeding Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. Major Owens was a civil rights activist, champion for anti-poverty efforts, an advocate for education reform and disability rights, and--most importantly--a librarian.

Major Owens was also an active member of Brooklyn's chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and a founding member of the Martin Luther King Commission. In the late 1990s, Owens supported progressive workers' rights issues, including protecting overtime pay and OSHA safety standards, while also defending organized labor. He was also a primary backer of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and a proponent of immigration issues, sponsoring bills that prevented the separation of parents and children and provided pathways to citizenship.

Throughout his career, Major Owens was an avid writer, from lyrics to rap songs to full-length books. During his retirement, he published a "subjective case study" of the Congressional Black Caucus called "The Peacock Elite," which examined its impact on national politics.

By

Center for Brooklyn History

Central Library, Brooklyn Public Library

Major Owens began his career as a Community Information Librarian at Brooklyn Public Library in 1958, where he worked until 1966. Owens paved the way for "placing Brooklyn Public Library collections in public places such as laundromats, stores, bars, and anywhere people gathered," a creative approach to librarianship that foresaw the way BPL envisions community outreach today. Owens was known by his colleagues as "The Librarian in Congress," and focused much of his effort on advocating for more federal money for education and libraries--causes near and dear to his heart.

530 Nostrand Avenue

While a librarian at Brooklyn Public Library, Owens joined the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). CORE was a national interracial organization with a commitment to nonviolent direct action, which became a major force in the struggle to end discrimination in the United States beginning as early as 1942. The image above is from a CORE campaign known as Operation Cleansweep, which focused on inequities in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant--the heart of what would later become Major Owens' Congressional district, and a historically and predominantly Black neighborhood.

Brownsville Branch, Brooklyn Public Library

Between 1966-1968, Major Owens served as the executive director of the Brownsville community council. Recommended on the strength of his work in Brownsville, Mayor John Lindsay appointed Owens the commissioner of the community development agency, giving him responsibility for the city’s anti-poverty programs. Later on, Borough President Sebastian Leone designated September 10, 1971, “Major R. Owens Day."

725 St. Marks Avenue

Major Owens took over for Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to the US House of Representatives after her retirement in 1982. Here she is at the Brower Park Branch of BPL, located in the center of the 9th Congressional District, in 1970.

Turner Towers

Owens' district comprised Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, and Prospect/Crown Heights--where these towers are located--and later extended as far as Park Slope and Kensington. At the end of his life, when he was awarded the highest honor for his work by the American Library Association, his family resided at this address on Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights. When he was in office during the 1980s and 1990s, large numbers of Haitians began moving into the district, making it the second–largest community of Haitians in the country, second only to Miami. Roughly two–thirds of the district’s Black population (then 55 percent) were from the Caribbean.

Bushwick

Taken perhaps during his time as BPL librarian in the 1960s, this image depicts Major Owens (R) congratulating the Prince and Princess of Bushwick, reigning monarchs of Brooklyn Public Library's summer Library Festival. The two winners are crowned amid crowds of well-wishers, with John Frantz, Library Director, standing in left background and Bessie Bulloch, Community Coordinator nearby.

Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York

Earlier in his career, Major Owens taught library science courses and acted as Director of Columbia University's Community Media Program. After his retirement from public service, Owens' focus shifted to writing poetry and novels--an outgrowth of the raps he wrote while he was in office, from which he acquired the nickname "The Rappin' Rep." Owens was appointed senior fellow for the DuBois-Bunche Center for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College, where he served until his death in 2013. He also authored "The Peacock Elite: A Subjective Case Study of the Congressional Black Caucus and Its Impact on National Politics," which was published in 2011.