Major Robert Odell Owens

Major R. Owens, the librarian-turned-activist who succeeded Hon. Shirley Chisholm in the U.S. House of Representatives and served there for 24 years, died on October 21, 2013 at the age of 77. Owens' commitment to community activism and his legislative acumen are already missed by his family, friends and admirers.

Full obituaries and biographies may be found at these websites:

- https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/nyregion/major-r-owens-congressman-who-championed-education-dies-at-77.html

- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/major-r-owens-former-congressman-dies-at-77/2013/10/22/692d7c00-3b31-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html

- https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/congressional-education-ally-major-r-owens-dies/2013/10

- https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2013/10/22/former-brooklyn-poltician-major-ownes-dies-77/

- https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2013/10/24/rep-major-r-owens-passes-77/

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Owens

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Major Owens, 77, Education Advocate in Congress, Dies

by Joseph P. Fried Oct. 22, 2013

Major R. Owens, a former librarian who went to Congress from Brooklyn and remained there for 24 years, fighting for more federal aid for education and other liberal causes, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 77.

His death, at NYU Langone Medical Center, was caused by renal and heart failure, his son Chris said. Mr. Owens lived in Brooklyn.

Mr. Owens, as a state senator and a former chief administrator of New York City's antipoverty program, was a prominent figure in Brooklyn when he won the House seat vacated by the retiring Shirley Chisholm in 1982. Fourteen years earlier, she became the first black woman elected to Congress.

Mr. Owens represented an overwhelmingly Democratic swath of the borough that included Crown Heights and parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Flatbush and Park Slope. The district encompassed stretches of severe blight and poverty, along with areas of middle-class stability and pockets of affluence.

He viewed education as "the kingpin issue," as he put it in an article he wrote for the publication Black Issues in Higher Education. "We have to believe that all power and progress really begins with education," he wrote.

As a member of the House committee that dealt with education, Mr. Owens spent much time sponsoring and shaping measures to put more federal money into reducing high school dropout rates, hiring more teachers and improving library services. Many of his provisions became parts of wider education bills.

In 1985, he wrote parts of a successful bill that authorized a $100 million fund to strengthen historically black colleges. In a hearing on the legislation, he said the fund was needed because "most of the historically black colleges are struggling." He recalled his own days at one of those institutions, Morehouse College in Atlanta, from which he graduated in 1956.

"Most of the youngsters there were poor, from very poor backgrounds," he said, and Morehouse "played a vital role of nurturing."

Mr. Owens, who was considered one of the most liberal members of the House, opposed an agreement between President Bill Clinton and Congressional Republicans to give states more flexibility in how they spent billions in federal school aid.

"We cannot leave it up to the states," he said. "They have not done a good job."

On other fronts, Mr. Owens was a floor manager of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, aimed at curbing discrimination against handicapped people. He defended organized labor and supported proposals to prohibit the deportation of illegal immigrants who fell into various categories.

Mr. Owens, whose first wife, the former Ethel Werfel, was white and Jewish, frequently urged blacks and Jews to bridge their differences.

He condemned the Nation of Islam as a "hate-mongering fringe group" after anti-Semitic remarks by its leader, Louis Farrakhan. Even before tensions between blacks and Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights erupted into riots in summer 1991, he denounced the "Rambo types on both sides" who, he said, only poured oil on the strife.

Mr. Owens was a low-key politician, but he had a colorful streak; he wrote and even performed rap lyrics, for example. He titled one number, about male sexuality, "The Viagra Monologues," a takeoff on the name of Eve Ensler's play "The Vagina Monologues."

Other lyrics, which he performed in open-mike sessions at cafes and entered into the Congressional Record, dealt with goings-on in Washington. One rap number commented on a 1990 budget accord between Congress and the White House.

Here is how it began:

At the big white D.C. mansion There's a meeting of the mob

And the question on the table Is which beggars will they rob.

Major Robert Odell Owens was born in Collierville, Tenn., on June 28, 1936, to Ezekiel and Edna Owens. His father worked in a furniture factory.

In 1956, the year he graduated from Morehouse, Mr. Owens married Ms. Werfel. The marriage ended in divorce. He later married the former Maria Cuprill.

After earning a master's degree in library science in 1957 from Atlanta University (which later became Clark Atlanta), Mr. Owens moved to New York City and worked as a librarian in Brooklyn from 1958 to the mid-1960s.

He was executive director of the Brownsville Community Council, an antipoverty group, until Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed him to oversee the city's antipoverty program in 1968 as commissioner of the Community Development Agency, a post he held until 1973.

Mr. Owens was a state senator from Brooklyn from 1975 until 1982, when he won the Democratic primary for Ms. Chisholm's House seat. In a district so heavily Democratic, the primary victory was tantamount to election.

His opponent in the primary, Vander L. Beatty, also a state senator from Brooklyn, was later convicted of forgery and conspiracy in seeking to get the result overturned...

He retired from Congress in 2006. His son Chris lost in a four-way primary race to succeed him.

Afterward Mr. Owens taught public administration at Medgar Evers College, a Brooklyn branch of the City University of New York. His book "The Peacock Elite: A Case Study of the Congressional Black Caucus" was published in 2011.

Besides his son Chris, from his first marriage, Mr. Owens is survived by his wife; two other sons from his first marriage, Millard and Geoffrey, an actor who appeared on television as the son-in-law Elvin on "The Cosby Show"; three brothers, Ezekiel Jr., Mack and Bobby; a sister, Edna Owens; a stepson, Carlos Cuprill; a stepdaughter, Cecilia Cuprill-Nunez; four grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.

NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS

Rep. Major R. Owens passes at 77

by Nayaba Arinde October 24, 2013

"Major Owens was a man of significance and a man of consequence," a saddened Council Member Al Vann told the Amsterdam News, as news broke of the Monday night passing of former Rep. Major R. Owens on Oct. 21.

"He was a strong advocate for justice, equality and empowerment for our people. He was an extraordinary legislator. He was a serious thinker, well read, and he will definitely be missed by me and many others in the state."

In the august of his days, Owens was fond of delivering his praise and critiques via rapping, thereby earning the sobriquet of the "Rappin' Rep." But as his constituents in Brooklyn and his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus knew, Owens was an able lawmaker and a man of unimpeachable integrity. Owens, 77, died Monday at NYU Langone Medical Center, apparently of cardiac arrest brought on by renal failure and diabetes, according to his son Chris.

From 1983 to 2007, Owens represented Brooklyn's 11th District in the House of Representatives. Among the laws he wrote or helped to pass was the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Only Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., among New York's representatives to Congress, sponsored or passed more legislation than Owens. His tenure in Congress was bracketed by Shirley Chisholm, whom he replaced, and Yvette Clark, who replaced him upon his retirement.

Before being elected to the House, Owens served more than seven years in the New York state Senate.

Owens was one of those Brooklyn fixtures who made his mark by his mere presence. Condolences and calls to the AmNews office came thick and fast, with people from all walks of life asking for confirmation.

"Congressman Major Owens was a true Brooklyn champion who served the public with distinction for decades," said Ken Thompson, Democratic nominee for Brooklyn district attorney. "As a congressman, community leader and tireless social justice advocate, he always put Brooklyn first and never forgot where he came from. My thoughts and prayers are with the Owens family in this difficult time. He will be deeply missed."

"[Today], New York lost a legend," said Council Member Letitia James. "Congressman Owens' commitment to working people in our city was remarkable, as were his accomplishments on behalf of his diverse district in Brooklyn. His legacy-from helping to develop social assistance programs under Mayor John Lindsay, to helping to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act in Congress-lives on. Even after leaving the House of Representatives, Owens never stopped serving-teaching as a professor at Medgar Evers College.

"Our city and our country have been changed for the better because of Congressman Owens' service. May he rest in peace."

April R. Silver, founder and resident of Akila Worksongs Inc., called the AmNews to ask if the news was true. "I'm so saddened to learn of Major Owens' passing on Monday," she said. "As a former educator, as a proud Brooklynite, as an activist and as someone who had the honor of working with him closely as a member of the Medgar Evers College Coalition, I'm clear that we just lost a giant. Every encounter with Major was characterized by his passionate and steadfast struggle for justice. My prayers are up for his entire family. May he rest in peace."

Born on June 28, 1936, in Collierville, Tenn., he was a proud alumnus of Morehouse College and Atlanta University, where he earned a master's degree in library science. He was a librarian before entering the political arena and the only person in the history of Congress with such a background. And despite his passionate involvement in politics, it did not eradicate his love for books. In 2011, he published his book "The Peacock Elite," which was an unsparing assessment of Black political leadership as well as a proscription for positive change. The politicians and civic leaders in his book are classified as "peacocks" or "workhorses," and nothing is more telling than his critique of the CBC, which, in his estimation, failed to respond to the expansive poverty in the nation.

Another example of his love for books and his adoration of the students he mentored after leaving Congress occurred in 2010, when he purchased more than $500 worth of books to freely distribute to his students. It was a testament to his generosity and devotion to the young people he tutored.

"Since his retirement from Congress in 2007, Congressman Owens was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the John W. Kluge Center in the Library of Congress," an email from this family added. "At his death, Owens was a Distinguished Lecturer and a member of the Du Bois Bunche Center for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. Owens served as president of the Central Brooklyn Martin Luther King Commission, and as a member of the board of Brooklyn for Peace and the legal nonprofit organization Advocates for Justice, as well as an advisory board member of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled.

"Over the years," the statement continued, "Major Owens has remained connected to his first profession as a librarian. He is considered a scholar and national expert on library education and information development. He has taught at Columbia University's renowned library school, and was a featured speaker at the White House Conference on Libraries in 1979 and 1990. In 1996, Major Owens was awarded a Lifetime Membership in the American Library Association."

To list his numerous awards is an endless task, but it would be remiss not to mention the honorary doctorate he received from Atlanta University in 1988. It should also be noted that he was also the author of three other books and a play and was a regular online contributor to Huffington Post and to other outlets.

He married Maria A. Owens in 1989; each had children from a previous marriage. The blended family of Major and Maria Owens included five children, Chris, Geoffrey, Millard, Carlos and Cecilia, and eight grandchildren. Owens was previously married to Ethel Werfel Owens. They were married in 1956 and divorced in 1985. Major Owens is also survived by four siblings, Ezekiel Owens Jr., Edna Owens, Mack Owens and Bobby Owens.

Expressing his condolences and deepest sympathy to Maria, the sons and the family, Vann added, "He made a tremendous mark in Congress. He was the 'education congressman.' He made changes in how Title 1 was funded, which put million and millions of dollars into Black and underserved communities. He served his constituency with dignity and integrity. He will be sorely missed."