Margaret Davis Bowen was an educator, religious leader and community advocate. She was born on May 24, 1894, in Columbus, Georgia. She learned German attending the National German American Teachers' Seminary at the University of Wisconsin. She earned a bachelors, and master’s degree in education from the University of Cincinnati in 1935 and a fellowship from the University of Cincinnati's Teachers College in 1950. She received a Doctor of Law degree at Bethune-Cookman College. She established an Alpha Kappa Alpha Chapter in 1921.

She married John Wesley Bowen, Jr. He was a bishop for the Methodist Episcopal Church and wrote for the Christian Advocate. His father was a methodist clergyman as well and was one of the first African Americans to obtain a Ph.D. degree in the United States.

Margaret Bowen taught German and worked with elementary school students at Cincinnati Public Schools. She than became president and principal of Gilbert Academy in 1940. Her involvement at Gilbert Academy resulted in the school attaining accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools. After moving to Atlanta in 1948, she became a teacher for the Atlanta Public School system.

Her honors and awards include teacher of the year at M.M. Bethune Elementary School in 1956 and the Margaret Davis Bowen Award established by Alpha Kappa Alpha in 1964.

She was a member of the neighborhood association Just Us, the National Council of Negro Women, and the Central Jurisdictional Women's Society.

She passed April 20, 1976.

Her son John Wesley Bowen, III was the first African American to become state senator in Ohio.