Owens, Howard

Date:
2000-02-28
Length:
120 minutes
Interviewer:
K'Meyer, Tracy
Transcription available:
yes
Series:
Civil Rights Movement in Louisville
Series ID:
2002_001
Interview Number(s):
2002_1_103
2002_1_104
Summary:
Howard Owens, born in 1948 in Pambloff, Arkansas, moved to Louisville because of his father's work as a preacher at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at age 5. In this interview, Owens talks about his father's work as a civil rights activist in the city prior to his own work during the 1960s following his graduation from high school as well as his work and activism during the civil rights movement from the end of the 1960s up until the 1980s. Topics include: the nationalist fringe groups participating in Louisville during the civil rights movement, his activism during college in Wilberforce, Ohio, his work as a teacher in Louisville with children with learning disabilities, the groups during the 1970s in Louisville including the Black Workers Coalition and Black Protective Parents, busing and the problems that faced busing within the communities and the city, other groups such as the Jtown Challengers and the Blacks United to Motivate Progress, his experience at a Klan rally that took place off of Preston Hwy, issues that arose after busing including police brutality and equity in hiring of minorities, the Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression, the Fred Harris case, the Lindsay Scott case, and a case involving the Black Panther Party that all took place in Louisville.
Topic(s):
Civil rights--Kentucky--Louisville, African Americans--Kentucky--Louisville, Busing for school integration--Kentucky--Louisville, Black Panther Party, Ku Klux Klan (1915-), Police brutality, Discrimination in employment--Kentucky--Louisville