Allard Kenneth Lowenstein (January 16, 1929 – March 14, 1980) was an American Democratic politician who served as the U.S. representative for the 5th congressional district in Nassau County, New York, for one term from 1969 to 1971.
Early life and start of career
Lowenstein was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants Gabriel Lowenstein [Löwenstein] and Augusta Goldberg Lowenstein. Lowenstein had two older brothers, Bert and Larry. His mother died from breast cancer when he was very young, and his father remarried soon after. Lowenstein was a graduate of the Horace Mann School in New York City and of the University of North Carolina. As an undergraduate, he was president of the National Student Association and the Dialectic Society. Lowenstein received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1954.
After completing his law degree, Lowenstein served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956, then became a college professor and administrator, holding posts at Stanford University, North Carolina State University, and City College of New York.
Political activism
Early public service
In 1949 Lowenstein worked as a special assistant on the staff of Senator Frank Porter Graham and was a foreign policy assistant on Senator Hubert H. Humphrey's staff in 1959. In the 1960s Lowenstein spent time in Mississippi as part of the Freedom Summer, and an interview of Lowenstein was featured in episode 5 of the Civil Rights Movement documentary Eyes on the Prize.
South Africa and national politics
In 1959, Lowenstein made a clandestine tour of South-West Africa, now Namibia. While he was there, he collected testimony against the South African-controlled government (South-West Africa was a United Nations Trust Territory). After his return, he spent a year promoting his findings to various student organizations and then wrote a book, A Brutal Mandate, with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom he had worked in 1957 at the American Association for the United Nations.
In 1960 Lowenstein was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
In 1964, he attended the 1964 Republican National Convention with his close friend and Congressional colleague Donald Rumsfeld.
In 1966 he helped Senator Robert F. Kennedy in writing his famous Day of Affirmation Address, given to the National Union of South African Students at the University of Cape Town.
"Dump Johnson" movement and 1968 presidential race
Along with Curtis Gans in 1967, and later that fall joined by Wisconsin's Midge Miller, Lowenstein started the "Dump Johnson" movement, approaching Senators Robert F. Kennedy and, at Kennedy's suggestion, George McGovern about challenging President Johnson in the 1968 Democratic primaries. When Kennedy and McGovern both declined, Lowenstein, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, recruited and worked for Eugene McCarthy, to whose candidacy he remained loyal, even after Kennedy's late entry into the race (before Johnson bowed out). Johnson's withdrawal from the presidential nomination process has been attributed to the impact of the "Dump Johnson" movement, culminating in the historical precedent of McCarthy's strong showing against Johnson in the New Hampshire primary.
Election to Congress
Lowenstein was elected to Congress on Long Island, New York, in 1968 but was defeated in a modified district in 1970 by New York State Senator Norman F. Lent by 9,300 votes, effectively gerrymandered out of office by the Republican-controlled state legislature, which determined the district's boundaries. Long Island's generally liberal Five Towns region had been removed from the district, and the far more conservative Massapequa added. Lowenstein captured 46% of the vote in the new district.
ADA leadership, "Dump Nixon" movement and Nixon Enemies List
The 1970 election was viewed nationwide as a referendum on President Richard Nixon's conduct of the Vietnam War. In 1971, Lowenstein became head of the Americans for Democratic Action and spearheaded the "Dump Nixon" movement, earning himself the number 7 spot on Nixon's Enemies List.
Campaigns for Congress
In 1972, Lowenstein ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Brooklyn against Congressman John J. Rooney, a conservative Democrat supported by the party "machine," in the Democratic primary. After Rooney's victory was challenged and the election recalled due to allegations of fraud, Rooney narrowly won the rescheduled primary, but Lowenstein continued in the race on the Liberal Party line, finishing with 28% of the vote.