Talk about giving people their roses while they’re still alive, that was the case just a month ago, when Kansas City Kansas Mayor Tyrone Gardner and other community leaders gathered for a two-day celebration in honor of Chester Owens and his late wife Lillie.
The community gathered for a renaming of the street that ran by the couple’s home Chester C.L.H. Owens, Jr. and Lillie Anne Owens Lane. The two-day event included a Friday evening unveiling of the street sign followed by a Saturday community gathering where friends and acquaintances shared their recollections of Chester and his wife all wonderfully delivered while he was still able to receive them.
Just one month later, the legend is gone, but his impact on Kansas City, KS will never be forgotten.
If you don’t know Chester you missed a treat. For decades he worked endlessly for civil rights and justice in the Kansas City Metro area, and those who encountered him benefitted from his wisdom.
Along with him, died volumes of knowledge of history about KCK and many of the great people who lived in or passed through the community.
He was a Community Voice fan and it was a mutual admiration. He was our trusted source for information on Kansas City’s Black history I was one of those individuals lucky enough to be invited into his home where he spread out and shared volumes of historical information from his unmatched collection. He had lots of information about KC greats, but he also had information documenting his civil rights works, like this case. (Sorry for the poor quality, but I shot it through the plastic cover it was enclosed in.)
This is a June 8, 1962 from the Kansas Commission on Civil Rights notifying Owens of a ruling in a case Ownes vs Kansas City Kansan. It was the regular practice of the paper to publish classifieds identifying the race of the person the employee the business would hire.
For Example:
MAN-Colored: for porter and cleanup work; 9 hours daily; good wages, see Mr. Wood after 8 a.m. Myron Green Cafeteria Co, 115 Walnut
WAITRESSES – White only; night shift; uniforms furnished; $25 a week. Reno’s Café, 2606 E. 15th BE.9643.
The advertisements violated the 1961 – just passed a year earlier – Kansas Acts Against Discrimination.
“The Commission has now received written confirmation of respondent’s compliance with the provisions of the Act and a copy of their memorandum to the Classified Advertising Department instructing “the Kansas City Kansan shall not publish employment ads where reference to race is made” and, further, “to invite their (the advertisers’) attention to the Kansas Act Against Discrimination.
This is just one example of the many ways Chester improved the community for the better. To learn more about Chester Owens, read either of these stories previously published in The Community Voice.
Sixty-Plus Years and Still Fighting: Kansas City’s Civil Rights Activist Chester Owens
KCK to Rename Street After Area Civil Rights Pioneers
Funeral Service Information
Sat., August 31, 2024
Visitation 9:a.m. to Noon
Time of Remembrance, 10 a.m.
Funeral Service, Noon
Oak Ridge Baptist Church
9301 Parallel Pkwy
Kansas City, Kansas
Interment
Tues., Sept. 3, 10 a.m.
Leavenworth National Cemetery
150 Muncie Rd
Leavenworth, KS
