September 30, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 170 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       IN RECOGNITION OF THE LIFE AND MEMORY OF MS. ROSEMARY LOWE

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                          HON. EMANUEL CLEAVER

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 30, 2020

  Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise 
today to honor the life and memory of a dear mentor, a great Kansas 
Citian, and an extraordinary American: Ms. Rosemary Lowe. Ms. Lowe, who 
passed away on the evening of September 22nd, was an unstoppable force 
for change, force for good, and force of nature. A public servant can 
only hope to mean to their community what Ms. Lowe means to hers. Since 
I learned of her passing, I have been thinking about her remarkable 
story--about everything she was able to accomplish--and I still find it 
hard to believe she was able to fit it all into just ninety-four years.
  Ms. Lowe grew up in Dumas, Arkansas in the painful shadow of Jim 
Crow. When she was just fifteen, her family moved to Kansas City, where 
she would go on to become a pioneer in the fight for desegregation. Ms. 
Lowe spent her early career with another pioneer in that struggle: 
Black physician Dr. Dennis Madison Miller, who would go on to be 
appointed Superintendent of the Jackson County Hospital Colored 
Division. She worked for him for twenty-three years at his office on 
18th and Vine. In the 1950s, Ms. Lowe was instrumental in efforts to 
desegregate downtown Kansas City department stores. Ms. Lowe was also 
instrumental in the founding of Freedom, Incorporated of Kansas City, 
Missouri, a political organization conceived in 1961 to elevate the 
votes, voices, and volition of the Black community of Kansas City to 
the halls of government. The next year, she and Freedom, Inc. co-
founder Leon Jordan ran for seats as Democratic committee 
representatives for our City's 14th Ward. She lost. Jordan won. But Ms. 
Lowe would later go on to win that seat and hold it for two decades as 
Kansas City's first Black committeewoman. In 1964, when thousands of 
activists travelled south to Mississippi as part of Freedom Summer, Ms. 
Lowe stayed in Kansas City and helped register thousands of Black 
voters before a citywide vote on a proposed ordinance that would make 
it illegal to discriminate in taverns, trade schools, hospitals, and 
clinics. Kansas City's public accommodations ordinance passed, 
predating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by several months. A retired 
cosmetologist, she spent her later years, if anything, expanding her 
efforts to help her community. She volunteered for the American Red 
Cross at Menorah Medical Center and the Veterans Administration 
Hospital of Kansas City, won and maintained a place on the Democratic 
National Committee for six years, co-founded the Local Investment 
Commission to improve the lives of children and families in the Kansas 
City region, and helped convince city leaders to relocate a Patrol 
Division of the Kansas City Police Department and rename it after none 
other than Freedom, Inc. co-founder and KCPD's first Black lieutenant, 
Leon Jordan. And whether it was Freedom, Inc., the Kansas City 
Democratic Committee, LINC, or any other of the tables of decision at 
which Ms. Lowe sat, she was, more often than not, either the only 
woman, the only Black voice, or both.
  I failed to mention, of course, the linchpin of Ms. Lowe's life of 
service. In 1952, after the Supreme Court ruled that people could not 
be evicted from their homes on the basis of race, Ms. Lowe's became one 
of the first Black families to move to the beautiful Santa Fe 
Neighborhood on the East Side of Kansas City. Kansas City's history of 
`redlining' and Santa Fe's history of racial covenants meant the 
transition for the first wave of Black residents was far from easy. 
White families began to move away in fear until, in 1955, just 15 
percent of the neighborhood remained White-owned. Years later, when new 
residents would move into the Santa Fe Neighborhood, they were told to 
go see the President of the Santa Fe Area Council, a Ms. Rosemary Lowe, 
who had held the position for many decades. As President of the Santa 
Fe Neighborhood, Ms. Lowe fought for more streetlights, improved 
housing and infrastructure, and stronger, more trusting ties between 
police and the communities they had sworn to protect.
  Ms. Lowe was also a sage counselor, mentor, and role model to 
countless civic leaders, community organizers, and elected officials 
like myself, who sought her wisdom as we began our own barrier-breaking 
careers on a path she helped pave. We who owed her so much, who loved 
her so much, who looked up to her so much--we called her ``Mother 
Lowe.'' We sought her out not only for her experience and wisdom, but 
also for her kindness, her warmth, and her unflinching, unapologetic 
honesty. She is the political mother of African American power in 
Kansas City.
  Decades working for Dr. Dennis Miller, decades as the committeewoman 
for the 14th Ward, decades as the President of the Santa Fe Area 
Council--Ms. Lowe was one of the most dedicated public servants I have 
ever seen in action. Hers was not a rise to power, where one springs 
from one post to another. Ms. Lowe became ``Mother Lowe'' because she 
stayed in the arena, fighting in the struggles of today, every day, for 
ninety-four years' worth of days.
  There is a stretch of street in Kansas City, on 29th between Prospect 
and Indiana Avenue. It runs right through the heart of the Santa Fe 
Neighborhood. It is called the Honorary Rosemary S. Lowe Lane. Today, 
we honor a woman who has defined a stretch of history in Kansas City. 
It is a stretch that runs right through the heart of our struggle to 
become more free and more equal. Madam Speaker, please join me in 
honoring the extraordinary life and memory of Ms. Rosemary Lowe. Ms. 
Lowe's march to a better future for our city did not relent for one 
minute. Let us be grateful for the world she handed us and resolve to 
bring the spirit of Mother Lowe to each and every effort we undertake 
to make it better.

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