Given three months to live in 1975, he believed the chemical Amygdalin marketed as the drug laetrile was responsible for extending his life.
[7] Before joining the state legislature, Owen worked as a truck driver for Royal Cleaners and was attending law school at Creighton University.
[12] As a legislator, Owens fought for civil rights but faced personal discrimination, for instance at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, he was not allowed to use the elevator and had to climb the stairs.
In that election he opposed increased taxation and favored progressive labor policies (minimum wage, maximum working hours law).
The project was supported by the Omaha Urban League and the Federal Housing Authority who was represented by DeHart Hubbard at the group's founding.
Owen, in his capacity as chairman of the Action Committee of the Near North Side led the outcry against what he called unfair arrests on a "wholesale basis".