Wednesday 7 October 2026 · SCLC · #255 · Major Owens Haiti · standing three hundred nineteen
SCLC Archive #255: Major Owens 1986 Haiti exiles’ return and free elections
May–June 1986 SCLC essay by Congressman Major Owens argues post-Duvalier Haiti’s transition required exiles’ right of return and electoral participation, a fixed free-election timetable (six months in his proposal), and U.S. neutrality. Printed “H.R. 379 with Congressman Wever” is not independently verified as a legislative record.
Source: LOC Rosa Parks Papers mss859430213 leaf 0082 (pp. 158–159) + cover leaf 0002. Sol commit 9157ab41.
Craft: contemporaneous argument by Owens ≠ evidence Haiti/US adopted it; constituent/priest anecdotes and 1957-election claims are his accounts only; bill designation transcribed not verified against congressional records.
Track: Haiti transition / exiles’ right-of-return advocacy (distinct from Alabama absentee, anti-apartheid grocery, VCU, environmental-justice, student, anti-Klan CDR, W.O.M.E.N., Stop the Killing tracks).
Report: immutable README.