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KEYWORDS: Miriam Braverman; Activist librarians; Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, Queens Library; Community librarianship.
Queens Library's Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center staff and members of the Board of Directors, and Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst, Inc. were fortunate to have met and known Dr. Miriam R. G. Braverman. Our sentiments stem from her personal, professional and humanitarian friendship with Dr. E.J. Josey (1929-2009), Chief, New York State Department of Education's Bureau of Specialist Library Services during the late 20th Century. I would classify both of them as "activist librarians" (library professionals who struggled for equality within the profession and for 120 equal access to library services in the community), in every sense of the phrase. They actively advocated for librarianship and agitated for equality within the library profession and for equity of programs and services for all communities and for library users.
The Langston board and staff were first introduced to Dr. Braveman in 1983. She and her colleagues gathered in New York City to fundraise and host receptions for Dr. E.J. Josey, candidate for President of the American Library Association. One reception was held at the home of Ms. Vivian Hewitt, and the other was held one fall Sunday afternoon at the Langston Hughes Library Center. Experiencing this gathering of politically active librarians was my first taste of librarianship in action. The room was filled with an electricity and energy galvanized for the mighty fight to have Dr. Josey elected as the first African American male to serve as President of the American Library Association.
As I listened to speeches by supporters and colleagues, including Hon. Major Owens (1936-2013), the first and only librarian to serve in the United States Congress (1983-2007), I knew these historical events and interactions would have a lasting impact on my library career. I learned that librarianship was so much more than just being a librarian or working at the library. It was being part of the struggle for equity of opportunity within the profession and fighting for ethnically diverse and marginalized communities to have equal opportunities for programs and services to meet their needs and nourish the future. I had known Major from our former lives, me a personnel services specialist in...