Barbara Ann Rowan

Barbara Ann Rowan (September 6, 1938 – October 31, 2020) was an American attorney. She was the first Black woman to be a prosecutor in the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Early life and education Barbara Ann Rowan was born on September 6, 1938, in Upper Manhattan, New York. An only child, her parents Norman B. Rowan She next turned to law school, enrolling in New York University School of Law's evening program while working as a court interpreter during the day. She recounted the episode to colleagues and eight Black lawyers sent a letter expressing their "collective outrage" this would take place at an "ostensibly integrated bar". which controversially recommended drug testing all federal employees. Ultimately, she was one of the commissioners who signed a letter criticizing the "mismanagement" of the project, saying that as a consequence the final report left significant areas of organized crime unexamined, for instance "failing to address the roles of American black and Jewish organizations in organized crime." Half the commission signed the statement.

Personal life A 1971 profile in the New York Amsterdam News described Rowan as "an accomplished swimmer and dancer." She was then living in Harlem with her parents. In 1972, she married Harold W. Gossett II, an FBI agent she met through her work as a prosecutor.

Rowan died from COVID-19 at a hospital in Arlington County, Virginia, on October 31, 2020, at age 82, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia.