Allard Kenneth Lowenstein (January 16, 1929 – March 14, 1980)[1][2] 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.

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.

[6] In 1964, he attended the 1964 Republican National Convention[citation needed] with his close friend and Congressional colleague[10] 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.

Long Island's generally liberal Five Towns region had been removed from the district, and the far more conservative Massapequa added.

Lowenstein was one of the first public figures to cast doubt upon the official account of the June 6, 1968, assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1978 he resigned his U.N. post to run for Congress in Manhattan's "Silk Stocking District", narrowly losing the Democratic primary to Carter Burden, who in turn lost the general election to Republican S. William Green.

In the early 1960s, he briefly served as dean of Stern Hall, then a men's dormitory at Stanford University, during which time he met and befriended undergraduate students including David Harris and Dennis Sweeney.

Lowenstein's papers are held as a special collection of the Long Beach Public Library and offer much material relative to his activities and his times.

On his posthumous live album The Bottom Line Encore Collection, Chapin dedicated the song to Lowenstein and John Lennon, who also died in 1980.

An area adjacent to the United Nations headquarters in New York City is named Allard K. Lowenstein Square.

[33] Lowenstein was portrayed by Brent Spiner in the 1984 television miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times, based on the book by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.