The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-30
,DR. A. F. OWENS IS
 ACTING PASTOR OF 16TH ST. CHURCH
Prominent Selma Negro Takes Up Work In Birmingham With Long
 Record of Past Achievement

Rev. A. F. Owens, D. D.. dean of the Theological department of Selma Uni
 versity and instructor of colored preach
 CTS for the state under the auspices of
 the home mission board of the Southern
 Baptist convention, Atlanta, has been
 called to the temporary pastorate of the
 sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Bir-
 mingham, the work resigned recently by
 Dr. A. C. Williams.
 pr. owens is now conducting a series
 of "get-together' meetings at the church
 with the view of reviving the work of
 the church paralyzed by the resignation
 of the former pastor. His success with
 the meetings, which will be held ten
 days, together with the two sermons
 preached to large audiences at the
 church last Sunday, has impressed influ-
 ential members of the church that pr.
 owens is the man for the church, and
 they are now thinking of calling him
 to the permanent pastorate. Indeed, he
 mas already been unanimously elected
 supply pastor without time limit and ex-
 ereises all the functions of pastor. IT. ONGnS ndS d Icllldl hdDic .SNNiN eN7
 preacher, school teacher, race builder
 and philanthropist, with friends, white and black, in Mobile Montgomery. Br- mingham Selma Tuskegee and other parts.
 Born in Alabama, educated in New Orleans at Leland University, he en- tered the pastorate in Mobile some
 forty years ago and spent twenty-six dividing his time with public schools, in recognition of which service the school commissioners of Mobile named for him the Broad Street Academy, now known as The A. F. Owens High School"
 As evidence of his high standing among the white citizens of Mobile, Dr. owens has been managing a fund thirty-seVen years contributed by them | for Thanksgiving and Christmas din- ners to the inmates of six charitable | institutions, 800 in number, three | fourths of whom are white people. pr. I owens originated this charity in lSS2 l and he returns to NJ obile every year 1 to collect money from the subscribers, I leading merchants and business men, nearly all white people. He collects 1 the money, buys the things for the dinners, supervises the distributions to 1 the City Hospital, County Poor Asylum, | Hannan Home and three other institu- | tions He publishes his reports an- | nually, showing receipts and disburse- | ments. the last report showing s1,309 | for 1919.
 l Rev. pr. Owens resigned his work
 in Mobile in 1906 to accept the position he now holds in Selma University. The | white citizens, subscribers to the an | nual dinners, known as the merchants | dinners made up sum of $165, pur- | chased a gold watch, invited Dr. Owens 1 to the Chamber of Commerce and sur- D. ised him with the testimonial Of | their confidence in him. pr. Owens | now carries that watch which was pre- l sented by some of the citizens of Bir-
 mingham. who were then doing busi-
 ness in the gulf city.
 During the assemblage of the Ala | bama legislature in 1911, Dr. Owens l was requested to bear a petition to | that body requesting the state to talk | over the Mount Meigs Boys Reforma- | tory, founded by the State Federation | of Colored Womens Clubs, and run 'l | as a state institution. After spend ing three months talking daily to in
 dividual members of the legislature, a | bill framed and championed by the 1 late John V. Smith, passed both houses ! and was signed by Governor O'Neal. l For thirty years and up to the time | of his death. pr. Booker T. Washing | ton sought the counsel of Dr. owens on
 matters pertaining to race relations. | The two were intimate friends all those | years. The same relationship now ex- ists between pr. R. R. Morton and Dr. |