Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in consideration of H.R. 5238, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, as the Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office.
This is particularly important to me, as Congressman Owens was my Congressman as a child growing up, and Saint Johns Place was the street on which my mother lived when she came from the Virgin Islands to live in New York City.
Clarke), and from that great place called Brooklyn, to tell us more about Congressman Owens.
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the U.S. Virgin Islands and quasi-Brooklynite for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues' support for H.R. 5238, the Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office designation.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of a former colleague, a groundbreaking legislator, who is credited and lauded for being a forerunner of the progressive political movement in Brooklyn, New York, my predecessor, the Honorable Major Robert Odell Owens.
Congressman Owens served in this body from 1983 to 2007, and he served in both Brooklyn's 12th and 11th Congressional Districts of New York. Congressman Owens still brings to memory for many the fond recollections of his groundbreaking legislative accomplishments as a senior, longstanding member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Owens spent 8 years in the New York State Senate before he was elected to serve in Brooklyn, New York's 12th Congressional District, a seat previously held by the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, his predecessor.
Mr. Owens then went on to serve his community for over two decades. Through his committee work and work with the Congressional Black Caucus' Education Brain Trust, Major Owens became known as the Education Congressman, but he was also deemed with another moniker, the Rapping Rep, due to his ability to intertwine his political perspective into rhythmic poetry.
Mr. Owens will always be remembered for the legislative victories he achieved on the Hill, and his spectacular fight, particularly for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, for which he is credited with its passage.
His accomplishments in Congress are vast, and many are stemmed from his lifelong passion for education, community development, and equality. Mr. Owens' passion for education began during his career in librarianship where he served as the community information librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library for a decade.
His friends and fellow activists in the Brooklyn community note that Mr. Owens was known to place collections from the Brooklyn Public Library in local stores, restaurants, laundromats, and more because his passion lay within sharing knowledge and resources to those who may not have immediate access to it.
Mr. Owens was one of the founders of the New York Social Responsibilities Roundtable which was an organization that is now a part of the New York Library Association. Their mission is to create a central position for libraries and librarians in the battle for civil rights, social justice, peace, and ever-improved public access to education and information.
Congressman Owens' dynamic passions for public education, information sharing, equality, and civil rights became driving forces for him to run for Congress as a former head of the Congress of Racial Equality.
His legacy in Brooklyn led him to become a continued featured speaker at the White House Conference on Library and Information Services, as well as a recipient of the American Library Association's highest honor: honorary membership.
Fittingly nicknamed the Librarian in Congress, Mr. Owens was dedicated to helping communities of color receive access to information resources through local public libraries.
Mr. Owens was a pillar within the United States Congress as an advocate for Americans with disabilities, social justice reform, library funding, education reform, as well as development in public schools and libraries to ensure that underserved communities did not lack access to information and education resources.
As a young public servant myself, I was inspired by Mr. Owens' work with the disabilities activists who often visited his office and eventually provided testimony before Mr. Owens' House Subcommittee on Select Education where he fought to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA.
Today, Brooklynites benefit from public library resource initiatives because of his advocacy for funding. The ADA still stands as a law to prevent discrimination against Americans with disabilities, as it guarantees to create equal opportunity for the special needs community.
To this day, my colleagues and I work to protect this law at all costs, thanks to Congressman Owens' dedication to ensure that this law was enacted. I am so proud to be his successor.
H.R. 5238 would designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, the Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office.
Congressman Owens will always be remembered in the district that he represented, and I am extremely pleased that the House will consider this bill in honor of his rich legacy and contributions to our great Chamber.
As I continue the distinct honor of representing the Ninth Congressional District of New York, I look forward to commemorating the life, memory, and integrity of our former House colleague, Congressman Major Robert Odell Owens, my trailblazing predecessor.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time.
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Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I urge passage of H.R. 5238, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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