1. Major Robert Odell Owens 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.
21 Facts About Major Owens
1. 2.
Major Owens was first elected to replace retiring representative Shirley Chisholm.
3.
Major Owens retired at the end of his term in January 2007 and was succeeded by Yvette Clarke.
4.
Major Owens was born on June 28,1936, in Collierville, Tennessee, to Ezekiel and Edna Major Owens.
5.
Major Owens was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and his father worked in a furniture factory as a laborer.
6.
Major Owens 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.
7.
In 1987, Major Owens was awarded the American Library Association Honorary Membership, its highest honor.
8.
Major Owens was a member of the New York State Senate from 1975 to 1982, sitting in the 181st, 182nd, 183rd and 184th New York State Legislatures.
9.
Major Owens served as floor manager of the Americans with Disabilities Act and aided in its enactment.
10.
Major Owens represented a diverse district located within Brooklyn, New York, which included many African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Jewish Americans, including a large Hasidic Jewish community.
11.
Major Owens's district included low income areas of Brownsville, a large Hasidic area of Crown Heights, the heavily Caribbean areas of Flatbush and East Flatbush, and the now upscale neighborhood of Park Slope.
12.
In 2006, Major Owens decided to retire at the end of his term.
13.
Major Owens was one of 31 House Democrats who voted to not count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 United States presidential election.
14.
Major Owens was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
15.
Major Owens received an "A" on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues.
16.
In 2006, Major Owens decided to not pursue re-election and retired from Congress, thereby ending his political career.
17.
Major Owens indicated that he wanted to spend his time writing novels and poetry.
18.
In 2006 after Owens's retirement decision, the Librarian of Congress announced that Owens would be appointed as a distinguished visiting scholar at the John W Kluge Center with the position to commence in January 2007.
19.
Major Owens served as a senior fellow for the DuBois-Bunche Center for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College.
20.
Major Owens then married Maria A Cuprill, and the couple had two children.
21.
Major Owens died October 21,2013 in New York City of congestive heart failure.