O primeiro e único bibliotecário a entrar no Congresso dos Estados Unidos da América

Major Robert Odell Owens (born June 28, 1936) is a New York politician and a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He is also a former Congressman, having represented the state's 11th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He retired at the end of his term in January 2007 and was succeeded by Yvette Clarke.

Owens was born in Collierville, Tennessee. He has a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College and a master of science degree from Atlanta University. Owens was a librarian before entering politics. He was elected to the New York state Senate in 1974 as a Democrat.

In 1982, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing the retiring Shirley Chisholm. One of his achievements in the House was the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Owens represented a very diverse district located within Brooklyn, New York. His district included low income areas of Brownsville, a large Hasidic area of Crown Heights, the heavily Caribbean areas of Flatbush and East Flatbush, and the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope.

Although Owens won the Democratic primary with just 45% of the vote, he was re-elected in 2004 with 94% of the vote. He retired from the House at the end of his term in January 2007. Due to the extreme Democratic lean of his district, there was little surprise that he would be replaced by another Democrat in the 2006 election. Yvette Clarke, who ran against him in the 2004 primary and won the 2006 primary nomination to succeed him, was elected with 89 % of the votes.

Representative Owens was one of the 31 who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004. 

Major Owens was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Owens received an "A" on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues.

The character Mark Richardson in the popular television program The West Wing is believed to be based on Owens. Richardson plays an African-American Congressman from Brooklyn who looks a lot like Owens.

Owens is nicknamed the "Rappin' Rep" since he writes raps. His rap songs are often political and liberal in nature.

Owens is also the father of actor Geoffrey Owens, best known for playing the role of Elvin on The Cosby Show.

Owens is now a faculty member in the Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evers College

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Owens

Bibliotecários negros famosos

       Daniel Alexander Payne Murray foi o primeiro bibliotecário negro a trabalhar na biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA em 1871.

       Daniel Alexander Payne Murray (1852-1925) Assistant librarian, Library of Congress; bibliographer, author, politician, and historian was the son of a freed slave. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 3, 1852. In 1861, he went to work at the United States Senate Restaurant managed by his brother who was also a caterer. Murray became the personal assistant to the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford at the age of nineteen. On April 2, 1879 he married Anna Evans with whom he had seven children. By 1881 he had risen to become assistant librarian. He joined the professional staff of the Library of Congress in 1871. He was eighteen years old, and only the second black American to work for the Library. Ten years later Murray was named assistant librarian, a position he held for forty-one years. Murray married educator Anna Jane Evans, and the couple became a major force in the social and civic life of the District of Columbia.

Murray began to compile a collection of books and pamphlets authored by African Americans at the request of Herbert Putnam, the successor to Spofford. The collection was to be an exhibition for the1900 Paris Exposition on "Negro Authors". In 1900 Murray published a list of the collections' holdings to date and appealed for additions to the list through donations.

Within several months, his list had grown to eleven hundred titles. The Library of Congress's "Colored Authors' Collection" originated from his efforts. Now known as the "Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection", it contains works dating from 1821 by such authors as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, and Alexander Crummell. Murray planned to expand his collection and create an encyclopedia of African-American achievement, unfortunately, the project never received sufficient support to become a reality.

Murray was widely acknowledged as an authority on African-American concerns. He was the first African-American member of the Washington Board of Trade, and he testified before the House of Representatives about Jim Crow laws and the migration of African-Americans from rural locations to urban areas. He was twice a delegate to the Republican National Convention and was a member of many other councils and organizations. He was also a prolific author, and a frequent contributor to African American journals, in particular The Voice of the Negro. He was also well known for his writings on African American history, including his monumental but uncompleted Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of the Colored Race. Murray's personal library of African American works was bequeathed to the Library of Congress upon his death March 31, 1925.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Alexander_Payne_Murray

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