Owens, Major, 1936-2013

<p>Major Robert Odell Owens (June 28, 1936 – October 21, 2013) was an American politician and librarian who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2007, representing the New York's 11th and then 12th Congressional district. He was first elected to replace retiring Representative Shirley Chisholm. Owens shepherded the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 through the House. He retired at the end of his term in January 2007 and was succeeded by Yvette Clarke.</p>

<p>Owens was born on June 28, 1936 in Collierville, Tennessee, to Ezekiel and Edna Owens. He was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and his father worked in a furniture factory as a laborer. He received a bachelor's degree in 1956 from Morehouse College, and a master's degree in library science in 1957 from Atlanta University, now known as Clark Atlanta.</p>

<p>Owens began his career in librarianship. After obtaining his master's degree, Owens settled in Brooklyn, New York and began his career as a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library from 1958 through the late 1960s. At the same time, Owens became active in the Congress of Racial Equality and other community groups. Owens, a community information librarian, became known for "placing Brooklyn Public Library collections in public places such as laundromats, stores, bars, and anywhere people gathered." In 1969, Owens worked with a group of other New York librarians, including Miriam Braverman, Anne Littlejohn, Betty-Carol Sellen, Joan Marshall, Hardy R. Franklin, Pat Schuman, Andrew Armitage, and Mitch Freedman, to establish the New York Social Responsibilities Round Table. This organization became part of the New York Library Association and its mission was "to create a central position for libraries and librarians in the battles for civil rights, social justice, peace, and ever-improved public access to education and information."</p>

<p>Although having moved from his career in librarianship into his political career, in 1979 and 1991, Owens was a featured speaker at the White House Conference on Libraries. In 1996, Owens received the American Library Association's highest honor—honorary membership.</p>

<p>Trained as a librarian, civil rights activist Major Owens was a community reformer who went on to serve in the New York state senate and then won the seat of legendary Brooklyn Representative Shirley Chisholm—the first African–American woman elected to Congress—when she retired from the U.S. House. Owens became a significant advocate for education during his 12 terms in the House. “Education is the kingpin issue,” he explained. “Proper nurturing of and attention to the educational process will achieve a positive domino reaction which will benefit employment and economic development.… The greater the education, the lesser the victimization by drugs, alcoholism, and swindles.… We have to believe that all power and progress really begins with education.”</p>

<p>Major Robert Odell Owens was born in Collierville, Tennessee, on June 28, 1936, to Ezekiel and Edna (Davis) Owens. Owens’s father, a day laborer in a furniture factory who espoused President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal philosophy, shaped Owens’s political views at an early age. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t aware of the fact that a much bigger world than my own personal universe was out there,” Owens once remarked. “We were very poor and always had to struggle to make ends meet. Still, I was also aware that we were not alone—that millions of people, in this country and abroad, faced similar kinds of problems. I also realized that what happened in the larger world affected my family and its personal welfare.” He also recalled that his mother, “the scholar of the family,” influenced his approach to academics. His parents’ optimism about their children’s future left Owens with the attitude that “there was no reason why I couldn’t go out and scale life’s summits.” Early on, he aspired to be a novelist. He attended public schools in Memphis, Tennessee, graduating from Hamilton High School. In 1956, Owens earned a B.A. with high honors from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. A year later, he completed an M.A. in library science at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta). In 1956, he married Ethel Werfel. They raised three children—Christopher, Geoffrey, and Millard—before divorcing in 1985. Geoffrey, an actor, landed a regular part on TheCosby Show; Chris became a community activist and ran unsuccessfully for city council in 1989. Major Owens later married Marie Cuprill, the staff director of an Education and Labor subcommittee in the U.S. House. She brought two children, Carlos and Cecilia, to the marriage.</p>

<p>Once out of school, Owens took a job as a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library in 1958, where he worked until 1966. He became active in the Democratic Party during that time and was involved in community organizations and the broader civil rights movement. In 1961, Owens joined the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), later chairing the organization. He also was vice president of the metropolitan New York council of housing. Additionally, Owens taught as an adjunct professor of library science and was director of the Community Media Program at Columbia University. From 1966 to 1968, he served as the executive director of the Brownsville community council. One observer described him as “the most canny and capable of the community corporation directors.” That post brought widespread recognition in the borough and its president designated September 10, 1971, “Major R. Owens Day.” Based on his work on antipoverty programs in the Brownsville neighborhood, New York Mayor John Lindsay appointed Owens the commissioner of the community development agency, giving him responsibility for the city’s antipoverty programs. Owens left the post in late 1973 near the end of Lindsay’s term as mayor, charging that there was corruption within the antipoverty and school programs in Brownsville and further asserting that newly elected African–American New York City Councilman Samuel Wright had awarded school board contracts as “political payoffs.” That episode sparked a feud between Wright and Owens that persisted into the 1980s. In 1972, Owens served on the International Commission on Ways of Implementing Social Policy to Ensure Maximum Public Participation and Social Justice for Minorities at The Hague in the Netherlands. Owens also participated in the 1979 White House Conference on Libraries.</p>

OWENS, Major Robert Odell, a Representative from New York; born in Collierville, Shelby County, Tenn., June 28, 1936; graduated from Hamilton High School, Memphis, Tenn.; B.A., Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga., 1956; M.S., Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta), Atlanta, Ga., 1957; chair, Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality; vice president, Metropolitan Council of Housing, N.Y., 1964; community coordinator, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1964-1966; executive director, Brownsville Community Council, 1966-1968; commissioner, Community Development Agency, New York, N.Y., 1968-1973; director, community media library program, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., 1973-1975; member of the New York state senate, 1974-1982; served on International Commission on Ways of Implementing Social Policy to Ensure Maximum Public Participation and Social Justice for Minorities at The Hague, Netherlands, 1972; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-eighth Congress and to the eleven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1983-January 3, 2007); not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Tenth Congress in 2006; died on October 21, 2013, in New York City, N.Y.