Johnny Owen

Career Before joining the state legislature, Owen worked as a truck driver for Royal Cleaners and was attending law school at Creighton University. His candidacy in 1932 for the ninth district of the Nebraska House of Representatives was supported by the Nebraska Negro Democratic club and by then Governor Charles W. Bryan and future US Congressman Edward R. Burke as well as by Kansas City's Dr. William J. Thompkins. One issue in the election was the position of the body on the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting alcohol, which Owen said he would vote to repeal. Owen defeated incumbent Republican John Andrew Singleton, John Newton, and George C Rothery (2,005 votes to 1,356, 143, and 924 respectively). As a legislator he sponsored an old-age assistance law and a bill for the reorganization of state and national banks. As a legislator, Owens fought for civil rights but faced personal discrimination, for instance at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, he was not allowed to use the elevator and had to climb the stairs.

In spite of the loss, Owen's stature in Omaha continued to grow and he received the nickname, "Honorary Negro Mayor of Omaha" which he held for many years. He stood again in the primary for the same seat in the legislature, now called the fifth district of the new Unicameral in 1938, where he came in sixth. At that time he was working as a Clerk in the County Assessors office and was a deputy registrar of deeds. In that election he opposed increased taxation and favored progressive labor policies (minimum wage, maximum working hours law). Supported by the NAACP, he was considered as a replacement City Councilman in 1951 while an employee of the post office.

On February 10, 1956, Omaha Police under the orders of Police Commissioner Henry Boesen performed a series of tavern raids wherein 57 people described by police as "vagrants, winos, and loiterers" were arrested. Owen, in his capacity as chairman of the Action Committee of the Near North Side led the outcry against what he called unfair arrests on a "wholesale basis". The issue at hand was whether the police action was consistent with police behavior in other, non-black areas of the city, although some activists, including representatives of the Omaha branch or the Urban League, NAACP, and African Methodist Episcopal Church felt that Owens protests went too far.