James Alexander Owen

James Alexander Owen (September 6, 1891 – July 6, 1955) was an American physician and politician from Mississippi who was also active in Cleveland and Detroit, Ohio. Dr. Owen was a member of the board of Trustees for the National Medical Association and was frequently credited for his efforts in the Journal of the National Medical Association.

James Alexander Owen
BornSeptember 6, 1891
Natchez, Mississippi
DiedJuly 6, 1955(1955-07-06) (aged 63)
Detroit, Ohio
EducationNatchez College (1912)
Meharry Medical College (1916)
Occupationphysician
EmployerOld General Hospital No. 2
Parkside Hospital (1940–1955)
Wayne Diagnostic Hospital (1940–1955)
Wilberforce University (1939–1955)[1]
Title Captain
First Lieutenant
Political partyDemocratic Party

Dr. Owen served in World War I (as a part of the Medical Reserve Corps) in the 370th Infantry. Owen was the medical officer of the 366th Field Hospital in France and was charged to study the effects of radiology there. He eventually was ranked Captain before being discharged.

Early life

James A. Owen was born to Samuel Henry Clay Owen and Sarah Josephine Mazique in Natchez, Mississippi. Little James had a twin named Henry and three younger brothers as well. Samuel Owen was a teacher and later became the president of Natchez College.[2] The school had been founded in 1885 in an effort to educate African American Baptist reverends. By the early 1900s, Natchez College was one of the few private institutions of higher learning that contributed significantly to the education of African Americans.[3] James's mother was a matron of the college. James and his brothers were part of a small community of highly educated African Americans in Mississippi. His parents made sure their sons never stopped learning and prospering from their educational resources. After graduating from public school, James and all his brothers eventually attended Natchez College. James graduated in 1912 and moved to Nashville to attend Meharry Medical College, form which he graduated in 1916.[4] When he finished school, the young James Owen went to intern in Old General Hospital No. 7 in Kansas City.[5]

Military service

In 1917, the United States joined World War I and the entire nation was in a buzz to join the effort. After the declaration of war with Germany, many African-Americans were turned away from the local recruiting stations. Unprepared for a large scale conflict, the United States Army had only four black regiments, and many commanders would not allow mixing of blacks and whites in their units. Also, the black regiments themselves were not trusted to be sent to Europe, as many of the higher ups possessed a lack of confidence in black soldiers as fighters.[6] Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School had been opened for training African-American men as there had been a huge influx of African-American volunteers and a petition was erected by the students of Howard University. However, there was still some discontent at the facility as many soldiers found that he had been unfairly assessed for merely being black.[7]

When Dr. Owen answered the military's call for physicians he was immediately given the rank First Lieutenant in the Army Medical Reserve Corps.[8] Like all the African-American recruits, Lt. Owen was sent to Fort Des Moines for medical training at the Medical Officers Training Camp. As part of the United States effort to expand the military, the War Department had issued Order No. 75 which had established the U.S. Army Ambulance Service (USAAS) and the Sanitary Corps. The goal was to allow the Medical Department to commission individuals in specialities if need be.[9] After completing his training, Lt. Owen was assigned as a medical officer with the 317th Sanitary Train of the 92nd Division and was sent to Camp Funston, Kansas.[10]

When the 92nd Division landed in France, Lt. Owen was reassigned to the 366th Field Hospital. The 92nd Division had been assigned to the trenches to assist the French troops there who had been facing aggressive assaults from the Germans for months. Lt. Owen spent a large amount of his time treating soldiers for illnesses, such as the Influenza, and gas inhalation. Most African-American soldiers had been assigned to noncombatant engineer units that performed dangerous and hard jobs of digging trenches, forming roads, and fortification against the Germans. Lt. Owen spent his time in France busy taking care of sick men and those heavily injured from building, as the Germans were becoming more aggressive in late 1918.[11] A tactic the Germans would use in the trenches was to throw constant gassing shells at the Allied troops[12] causing the hospitals to be filled which troops suffering from lung and breath problems. Before the war ended, Owen was promoted to Captain.[13]

Cpt. Owen was honorably discharged in 1919 and was credited in the Meharry Annual report for his efficient work.

Career

Dr. Owen returned to Mississippi after his service in the war[14] and lived there until 1920 when he moved to a small town in Oklahoma. He met his wife there and soon moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to seek employment. He remained there for eight years and opened his own medical practice. The years spent in Cleveland were anything but quiet. Dr. Owen became a member of the Cleveland Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association[15] and a lifelong member of the National Medical Association.[16]

In 1925, Dr. Owen and other doctors in the area founded the Cleveland Medical Reading Club[17] to keep African-American Medical professionals updated on programs and treatments. Many African American professionals were excluded from traditional white medical associations so Dr. Owen decided there needed to be an organization founded to keep the public, "abreast of programs and advancements in the medical field" and did not believe that that should be designated for whites only.[18]

Dr. Owen entered the political sphere in 1932 when he became a member of the executive committee of the Cuyahoga county Democratic Party and served there until 1940. He also ran an unsuccessful campaign for Thomas W. Felming's seat (third district) in the Cleveland City Council. Dr. Owen's platform was to provide better sanitation and increased access to medical care for the community. Dr. Owen later became assistant ward leader of Cleveland's 18th ward and a charter member of the Conservative Republican Voters League.[19]

Life in Cleveland grew to become more taxing as in 1933, Dr. Owen's office was intruded by two individuals seeking to rob him. Owen had surprised them both by producing his pistol, which he had kept hidden in his desk, and chased them down. The incident was reported in the Pittsburgh Courier.[20]

In 1940, the Owen couple moved to Detroit where James's younger twin lived and was given employment at Parkside Hospital and Wayne Diagnostic Hospital. Dr. Owen also managed his own private practice with his brother. In Detroit he repeated his close relationship with the National Medical Association, eventually becoming a trustee in the board.

Group Photograph of the Detroit Board of Trustees in National Medical Association, Dr. Owen (far left second to last individual)

Dr. Owen also served as president of the board of trustees of the combined normal and industrial department in Wilberforce University from 1939 to his death, and as vice-president of the Ohio Medical Association. He was also a lifelong member of the American Legion and Kappa Alpha Ps Fraternity.[21]

In 1954, the Journal of the National Medical Association reported Dr. Owen and his wife traveling to Europe for the International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Geneva, Switzerland.[22]

Personal life

Shortly after leaving the military, Dr. Owen married Marie E. Thomas, a teacher from Tuskegee, Alabama.[23] The couple did not have any children and Mrs. Owen survived him.

Death

Owen died in July 1955 and was survived by his wife and younger brother. His death was mentioned in the Journal of the National Medical Association and was mourned for his many contributions to the medical community.[24]

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References
  1. "Journal of the National Medical Association—Volume 47 No. 2". Journal of the National Medical Association. 48 (1): 73–75. January 1956. PMC 2641152.
  2. Buckley, Joann H.; Fisher, W. Douglas (2016). African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781476663159.
  3. "Natchez College". Mississippi Department of Archives and History. October 3, 2015 – via 10 Most Historically Endangered Places in Mississippi.
  4. "Meharry Medical College Catalogue 1915". Meharry Medical College – via Meharry Medical College Archives.
  5. Buckley, Joann H.; Fisher, W. Douglas (2016). African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781476663159.
  6. Roberts, Frank E.; i (2004). The American Foreign Legion: Black Soldiers of the 93rd in World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-59114-734-3.
  7. Barbeau, Arthur E.; Henri, Florettte (1996). The Unknown Soldiers: African American Troops in World War I. New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-306-80694-0.
  8. "Noncombatant Commissioned Officers of the Army—United States Congressional serial set, Issue 7330". United States Congress. 1918 – via Google Books.
  9. "WORLD WAR I THE AMBULANCE SERVICE Ch. 2—The United States Army Medical Service Corps". U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History.
  10. Buckley, Joann H.; Fisher, W. Douglas (2016). African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781476663159.
  11. Roberts, Frank E.; i (2004). The American Foreign Legion: Black Soldiers of the 93rd in World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-59114-734-3.
  12. Scott, E. J. Scott. THE AMERICAN NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR. Homewood Press. pp. Chapter 11.
  13. Buckley, Joann H.; Fisher, W. Douglas (2016). African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781476663159.
  14. Beckford, Geraldine Rhoades (2013). ABiographical Dictionary of American Physicians of African Ancestry, 1800–1920. Africana Homestead Legacy. p. 392.
  15. Buckley, Joann H.; Fisher, W. Douglas (2016). African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781476663159.
  16. "Journal of the National Medical Association--Volume 47 No. 2". Journal of the National Medical Association. January 1956. PMC 2641152.
  17. "CLEVELAND MEDICAL READING CLUB—The Dictionary of Cleveland Biography". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 1998 – via Kelvin Smith Library-Case Western University.
  18. "CLEVELAND MEDICAL READING CLUB – The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. March 4, 1998.
  19. "OWEN, JAMES ALEXANDER, M.D. – The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. July 21, 1997.
  20. "TWO SHOT IN ATTEMPT TO ROB DOCTOR". The Pittsburgh Courier (1911–1950). February 25, 1933 – via New Pittsburgh Courier Online Archives.
  21. "OWEN, JAMES ALEXANDER, M.D. – The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. July 21, 1997.
  22. "Journal of the National Medical Association—Volume 47 No. 2" (PDF). Journal of the National Medical Association. March 1955. PMC 2617620.
  23. Buckley, Joann H.; Fisher, W. Douglas (2016). African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781476663159.
  24. "Journal of the National Medical Association—Volume 48 No. 2". Journal of the National Medical Association. January 1956. PMC 2641152.
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