Major Owens

Major Robert Odell Owens ( born June 28, 1936 in Collierville, Tennessee, † October 21, 2013 ) was an American politician. Between 1983 and 2007 he represented the State of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Major Owens is the father of actor Geoffrey Owens.

Career

Major Robert Odell Owens was born about three years before the outbreak of the Second World War in Collierville. He graduated from Hamilton High School in Memphis. After that he went to Morehouse College in Atlanta (Georgia), which he left with a Bachelor of Arts in 1956 again. His Master of Science he made in 1957 at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University ). He had presided over the Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality. In 1964, he worked as Vice President of the Metropolitan Council of Housing and 1964-1966 as a Community Coordinator of the Brooklyn Public Library. After that he went 1966-1968 employed than CEO ( Executive Director) in the Brownsville Community Council. Between 1968 and 1973 he was a commissioner in the Community Development Agency in New York City. He served in 1972 in the International Commission on Ways of Implementing Social Policy for Ensure Maximum Public Participation and Social Justice for Minorities in The Hague (Netherlands). In 1973 he took up the post of director for the Community Media Library Program at Columbia University - a position which he held until 1975. Between 1974 and 1982 he sat in the Senate from New York. Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party.

In the congressional elections of 1982 for the 99th Congress, he was in the twelfth electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC chosen, where he became the successor of Shirley Chisholm after the 4th January 1983. He was re-elected four times in a row. In 1992 he was a candidate in the eleventh electoral district of New York for the 103rd Congress. After a successful election, he resigned on 4 January 1993 the successor to Ed Towns. He was re-elected six times in a row. Since he gave up for reelection in 2006, he retired after the 3rd of January 2007 from the Congress.

He died on October 21, 2013 at the age of 77 years due to heart failure.