Bill Owens (Massachusetts politician)

William Owens (July 6, 1937 – January 22, 2022) was an American politician and businessman. He was the first Black state senator in the Massachusetts State Senate.[1][2]

Bill Owens, 1991

Biography

Owens was born in Demopolis, Alabama, on July 6, 1937. He went to the English High School of Boston. Owens also attended Boston University, Harvard University and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Owens was a private consultant and lived in Mattapan, Boston, Massachusetts. Owens served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, in 1973 and 1974, and was a Democrat. He then served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1974 to 1982 and from 1988 to 1992.[3][4]

As a legislator, Owens helped to create the Massachusetts state Office of Minority Business Assistance and the Summer Youth Jobs Program. He supported gun control. In the 1980s, he also "sponsored a bill that would have required state government to pay reparations to Massachusetts descendants of enslaved Black Americans."

A few weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, Owens died in his sleep at a Brighton, Boston, skilled nursing facility on January 22, 2022, aged 84.[5]

See also

Notes
  1. "Fact Checking Kennedy And Markey On Their Black Lives Matter Claims". wbur.org. July 31, 2020.
  2. "Charlotte Golar Richie adding endorsement of Bill Owens, Boston's first black state senator". Boston.com. August 29, 2013.
  3. State Library of Massachusetts-Bill Owens papers (1989-1992)-biographical Sketch
  4. 'Public Officials of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1991-1992,' Massachusetts General Court: 1991, Biographical Sketch of Bill Owens, pg. 70
  5. "Bill Owens, first Black state senator in Massachusetts, dies at 84"
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