Senator Kevin Parker Mourns the Loss of former Congressman Major Owens

(Brooklyn, NY) “Please join me in extending heartfelt condolences to the Owens family on the loss of a devoted husband and father, former Congressman and longtime local leader Major Owens.

A fixture in the Brooklyn Community, Major Owens began his career as a librarian whose work as a crusader for working class families led him into fighting poverty as part of the Lindsay Administration in the 1960s, and eventually into a position as a New York State Senator.

After serving Brooklyn as a State Senator, Major Owens ran successfully for the Congressional Seat previously held by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, which he continued to serve our community from for twenty-four years.

Among the many impressive achievements our friend, neighbor and tireless advocate Major Owens brought about were the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and many years of increased funding for the historically black colleges and universities that provide the rungs on the ladder of success so many youth need to ascend.

After his retirement from Congress, Major Owens returned to his first love, academia, and taught at Medgar Evers College in Central Brooklyn.

In Major Owens’ homegoing, Brooklyn lost a true hero who led by example and cared deeply for the community he lived in for so many years. In the many different roles he played in fighting for opportunity for the less-fortunate, he maintained the compassion, integrity and dignity we look for in our community’s leaders.

Goodbye Congressman Owens. You will be sorely missed.”

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About Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Kevin S. Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of his ethnically diverse Brooklyn community that consists of 318,000 constituents in Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, and Park Slope.  He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, Assistant Democratic Leader for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Chair of the Democratic Task Force on New Americans.