William Owens is elected to the Massachusetts Senate

Owens (R) defeats Rep. Royal Bolling (D-Roxbury) to represent the Second Suffolk District, which was recently redrawn to create a so-called “black Senate district. The first African-American elected to the Massachusetts Senate, Owens is reelected until 1982,* and elected again in 1988.* The district is redrawn, putting many African-American residents in another district, in 2001.