[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16267-16268]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MAJOR R. OWENS

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues in 
celebrating ``the people's Congressman.'' I am so delighted that we 
have the opportunity to share our friendship toward the late 
Congressman Major Owens, who loved his Brooklyn district and loved his 
family. My deepest sympathy goes to his wife Maria, and all of his 
family members.
  Major Owens was truly someone who served the people.
  I am reminded of a story that he told of when his family heard that 
FDR was providing opportunities for work in the 1940s. No one in his 
community was getting jobs, but his parents wrote to FDR, and all of a 
sudden things changed. That is the kind of man Congressman Owens was.
  He was a change-maker, educator, and librarian. He was always there 
to say that his district and America's poor people needed to be 
represented. He was, in fact, the people's Congressperson because he 
extended his hand. He loved the people. He provided resources and he 
fought the good fight.
  I want to thank you, Congressman Major Owens, for being my friend and 
a friend of those in Congress, Republicans and Democrats. Most of all, 
I want to thank Congressman Major Owens for being the friend of poor 
people around the Nation who could not speak for themselves.
  I am glad that his giant footsteps had a great impact on the 
congressional district he represented. More importantly, he had a great 
impact on America. He was a soldier on the battlefield for those who 
could not speak for themselves.
  May he rest in peace. God bless him and his family.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a great American, a fighter 
for justice and equality, one of the most passionate advocates for 
educational opportunity, and a man who served in this body with 
distinction, Major R. Owens of New York. Congressman Owens died Monday, 
October 21, in Manhattan at the age of 77.

[[Page 16268]]

  Major Owens was born June 28, 1936, in Collierville, Tennessee. He 
was educated at Morehouse College, from which he received his 
baccalaureate degree, and Atlanta University, from which he earned a 
Master of Science degree. Major Owens later moved to New York where he 
worked as a librarian before accepting an appointment from Mayor John 
V. Lindsay to serve as Director of the New York City Community 
Development Agency. He also served as a faculty member in the 
Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evers College.
  In 1974, Major Owens was elected to the New York State Senate and was 
reelected to serve a second term in 1978. In 1982, Major Owens won a 
competitive primary to fill the seat of retiring Congresswoman Shirley 
Chisolm, the first African American woman elected to the House of 
Representatives and the first woman ever to seek the Democratic 
nomination for President of the United States.
  As the Member of Congress for the 11th Congressional District of New 
York, Major Owens represented a diverse district and eclectic district 
centered in Brooklyn, and including low income areas of Brownsville and 
parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the large Hasidic community of Crown 
Heights, the heavily Caribbean areas of Flatbush and East Flatbush, and 
the more affluent neighborhoods Park Slope and Prospect Park.
  Affectionately known as the ``Education Congressman'' by his 
constituents, Major Owens fought tirelessly throughout his twelve terms 
in Congress to protect and expand educational opportunity for all 
Americans, especially those from economically and socially 
disadvantaged backgrounds. As he often reminded his colleagues in the 
House, education was ``the kingpin issue.'' In an article he published 
in Black Issues in Higher Education, he wrote: ``We have to believe 
that all power and progress really begins with education.''
  Major Owens served on the House Committee on Government Reform and 
the Committee on Education and the Workforce. As the Ranking Member on 
the Education and Workforce Subcommittee for Workforce Protections, 
Congressman Owens helped lead the fight for minimum wage increases, 
blocked the attempt to eliminate cash payments for overtime, fought 
against efforts to roll back or repeal Davis-Bacon and to weaken the 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
  As Chairman of the Education Subcommittee on Select Education and 
Civil Rights (1988-94), Congresswoman Owens was one of the earliest and 
strongest supporters of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which was 
enacted into law in 1991. In recognition for his yeoman work to pass 
the ADA, Major Owens was awarded an honorary degree by Galludet 
University, the world's premier higher education institution serving 
deaf and hard of hearing people.
  Major Owens loved serving in this body and he was a valued member of 
the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black 
Caucus. As Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Task Force on 
Haiti, he led the successful three-year fight which restored the 
democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
  Madam Speaker, Congressman Owens was a legislator's legislator. Our 
prayers and condolences go out to his wife Maria, his sons Chris, 
Geoff, and Milard; his grandchildren; and to all his friends and loved 
ones. Major Owens touched so many lives in so many helpful ways that he 
will always be remembered by people he served so ably and selflessly 
for more than thirty years.
  Madam Speaker, a dear colleague has fallen. We are all saddened at 
the loss but overjoyed to have had the honor of serving with the 
distinguished gentleman from Brooklyn, New York, the honorable Major R. 
Owens.

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