Old Dominion University honors late civil rights activist with residence hall

“They called him a radical, a troublemaker, a rabble-rouser,” the quote reads. “But he was a very steady, reasoned man who took a stand when he knew something was wrong.”

It’s one of many messages printed on walls inside of Old Dominion University’s newest residence hall — the Hugo A. Owens House — Owens House for short.

Filled with quotes from the late dentist and civil rights leader Dr. Hugo A. Owens Sr., the building feels like a letter of sorts from Owens to students who walk through, a reassurance that they can overcome adversities, and, if needed, create change. Owens died in 2008 at age 92.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Owens successfully sued the city of Portsmouth to integrate several of its public facilities, including its parks and libraries. He was one of the first Blacks elected to Chesapeake City Council. Owens served on ODU’s Board of Visitors from 1990 to 1994 and became its first Black rector in 1992.

The residence hall is among several new buildings on campus, including a chemistry building that was dedicated on April 20 and a health sciences building slated to open in 2023. Owens House is the university’s first completely wireless residential community with streaming TV services and wireless Internet. It’s also the second-largest residence hall and houses many STEM and entrepreneurial students, the university said.

The university first honored Owens with its Hugo A. Owens African American Cultural Center. When the university starting planning for the new hall, Old Dominion President, John R. Broderick, saw naming it after Owens as a bigger way to remember him. Broderick knew Owens well.

“I really vowed at that time to our students and to his family that we were going to continue to honor him, but we were going to honor him in a much more meaningful way,” Broderick said.

Administrators and family members designed a namesake wall on the residence hall’s first floor. Passersby can see photos of Owens with notable figures such as Rosa Parks, as well as words that illustrate the many hats he wore during his life — educator, innovator, mentor, activist and lifelong learner.

The words they chose were intentional, said Bridget Weikel, the university’s associate dean for housing and residence life.

“We picked them because they were truly themes of the stories that we heard about him,” Weikel said.

On the second, third and fifth floors are also quotes from Owens, his children and James V. Koch, the university’s president from 1990 to 2001. Koch referred to Owens as the “Nelson Mandela of Hampton Roads,” Pilot archives show.

His 1950 lawsuit to integrate city parks came after he and his daughter were chased out of the area by a groundskeeper. Owens and three others sued for access to city golf courses and won. In 1960, he helped win a lawsuit to desegregate the city’s libraries.

“I think that also speaks to our students,” said Don Stansberry, ODU’s vice president of student engagement and enrollment services. “We have so many first-generation students and students that maybe weren’t sure they could be successful. They look at someone like Dr. Owens that would put himself out there.”

To bring the building’s namesake wall to life, Owens’ children looked through his belongings and notes.

His daughter Patrice Owens Parker found a list of people who inspired him throughout his lengthy career, including Helen Holiday, who taught him in the third, fourth and fifth grades at the Deep Creek Colored School for Children.

“She taught dad to love education,” Owens Parker said.

Owens graduated from I. C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth and then, in 1939, from Virginia State College for Negroes, now Virginia State University.

“First excel, then help others,” reads an Owens’ quote on a third-floor wall at the residence hall.

The words speak to his desire to pay it forward and encourage others to reach the same heights he did.

He graduated in 1947 from Howard University with a degree in dental surgery and returned to Portsmouth to set up a practice where he trained other Black professionals.

Owens Parker said it was Howard Dental School graduate Dr. John L. McGriff who encouraged him to open his own practice and bought her father his first dental chair.

Her father was a founding member and first president of the John L. McGriff Dental Society, a local organization of Black dental professionals.

At his own practice, Owens encouraged employees to keep learning.

“You’re not expected to stay here,” reads a quote on the first-floor wall. “You learn new skills, whatever they need to be, and you move on.”

Owens also sought a career in politics, holding meetings at his practice on Green Street and local churches and running unsuccessfully in 1956 for Portsmouth City Council as the only Black candidate.

Owens made quite the name for himself in Chesapeake as well.

He was one of the first two Black people to be elected to council in 1970 and served for 10 years, with eight years as vice mayor. Because of his contributions, one of the city’s middle schools bears his name.

Owens Parker said she enjoyed helping with the wall project and reading the writings her father left behind.

“We were growing up during that time or we were adults and had left,” she said about herself and her siblings, Hugo A. Owens Jr. and Paula Owens Parker. “Having to go back in and look at them was really great for us.”

She recalled reading in one of his journals that he met poet Langston Hughes.

“‘Interesting fellow’” was the whole entry,” she laughed.

She also recalled reading about Sarah Patton Boyle in her father’s notes. She was one of Virginia’s most prominent white civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s and worked closely with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1958, Owens helped bring Boyle to Portsmouth for a speech. Getting her to the area was quite the task, his daughter said. Because Boyle’s opinions on race relations were deemed controversial, they had to make arrangements to meet her at the train station and make sure she had a place to stay during her visit.

There was a reason for such precautions. According to archives, Boyle once reported having a cross burned outside of her bedroom window in Charlottesville.

In addition to the namesake wall, Owens Parker said, the collaborative spaces for students to work together are an excellent way to pay homage to her father.

“He was big into collaboration,” she said. “I am having difficulty coming up with something to say about it because it was such an overwhelming experience. I’m speechless.”

Saleen Martin, 757-446-2027, saleen.martin@pilotonline.com