Rev Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (November 29 1908 –
April 4 1972), American
politician, was the first [citation needed] African American to become a
powerful figure in the United States Congress. He was elected to the
United States House of Representatives from Harlem in 1945, and became chair of the
Education and Labor Committee in 1961. His tenure as committee chairman saw the passage of important social legislation.
Early years
Powell was born in New Haven. His father, Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was a
Baptist minister and headed the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in Harlem, New
York. His paternal grandfather was white, as were several of his mother's ancestors. He was educated at public schools,
the City College of New York and Colgate
University. He received an MA degree in religious education from Columbia
University in 1931.
During the Depression years, Powell, a handsome and charismatic
figure, became a prominent civil rights leader in the Harlem area of Manhattan and developed a formidable public following in Harlem community through his crusades for jobs and
housing. As chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Employment, he organized mass meetings, rent strikes and public
campaigns, forcing companies and utilities, and the Harlem hospital to hire black workers. Powell organized a picket line and the
1939 New York World's Fair at the Fair's executive offices in the Empire
State Building; as a result, the number of black employees was increased from about 200 to 732 [1]. A bus boycott in 1940 led to the hiring of 200 black workers by the transit
authority. When Negro pharmacists were failing to get hired, Powell led a fight in 1941 to have drugstores in Harlem hire them
all. [2]
In 1937 he succeeded his father as pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church. In 1941 he was elected to the New York City Council as the city's first
Black council representative with the aid of New York City's use of the Single
Transferable Vote.[1] He received 65,736 votes, the third best total among the six successful council
candidates [3]
"Mass action is the most powerful force on earth," Mr. Powell once said, adding, "As long as it is within the law, it's not
wrong; if the law is wrong, change the law." According to analysts, he landed in Washington as Congressman armed with a mandate
from the grassroots to make a difference.
Congressman
In 1944 Powell was elected as a Democrat to the House of
Representatives, representing the 22nd congressional district, which included Harlem. He was the first black Congressman from New
York, and the first from any Northern state other than Illinois.
Powell addressing a citizens' committee mass meeting
As one of only two black Congressmen, Powell challenged the informal ban on black representatives using Capitol facilities
reserved for members only. He took black constituents to dine with him in the "whites only" House restaurant. He clashed with the
many segregationists in his own party.
In 1956 Powell broke party ranks and supported Dwight D.
Eisenhower for reelection, saying that the Democratic platform's civil rights plank was too weak.
In 1958 he survived a determined effort by the Tammany
Hall machine to oust him in the Democratic primary election.
In 1960, Powell forced Bayard Rustin to resign from the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) by threatening
to discuss Rustin's homosexuality charge in Congress.
In 1961, after 15 years in Congress, Powell became chairman of the powerful Education and Labor Committee. In this position he
presided over federal programs for minimum wage increases, education and training for the
deaf, vocational training and standards for wages and work hours, as well as aid to elementary and secondary education. He
orchestrated passage of the backbone of President John Kennedy's "New Freedom" legislation. He would also become instrumental in
the passage of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" social programs.
Powell Jr.'s committee passed a record number of bills for a single session. That record still remains unbroken. As one of the
great modern legislators, Powell Jr. would steer some 50 bills through Congress.
He passed legislation that made lynching a federal crime and bills that desegregated public schools and the U.S. military. He
challenged the Southern practice of charging Blacks a poll tax to vote, and stopped racist
congressmen from saying the word "nigger" in sessions of Congress.
By the mid-1960s Powell was being increasingly criticized for mismanagement of the committee budget, taking trips abroad at
public expense, including travel to his retreat on the Bahamian isle of Bimini, and missing
sittings of his committee. He was also under fire in his district, where his refusal to pay a slander judgment made him subject
to arrest. He spent increasing amounts of time in Florida and displayed his wealth more than was
wise for a Congressman representing a poor district.
In January 1967, following allegations that Powell had misappropriated Committee funds for his
personal use and other corruption allegations, the House Democratic Caucus stripped Powell of his committee chairmanship. The
full House refused to seat him until completion of an investigation by the Judiciary Committee. In March the House voted 307 to
116 to exclude him. Powell won the special election in April to fill the vacancy caused by his exclusion, but did not take his
seat.
Powell sued in Powell v. McCormack to retain his seat. In June
1969 the Supreme Court ruled that the
House had acted unconstitutionally when it excluded Powell, a duly elected member, and he returned to the House, but without his
seniority. Again his absenteeism was increasingly noted.[4]
In June 1970 he was defeated in the Democratic primary by Charles B. Rangel, who has represented the area ever since. Powell failed to get on the ballot for the
November election as an independent. He resigned as minister at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and moved to Bimini.
Death
In April 1972, Powell became gravely ill and was flown to a Miami hospital from his
home in Bimini. He died there on April 4, 1972 at the age of 63, from acute prostatitis, according to contemporary
newspaper accounts. A few days later, his ashes were carried aloft by a plane and scattered over his beloved Bimini.
Personal
A rare spoken word album by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., featuring his famous catchphrase.
His first wife was nightclub entertainer Isabelle Washington (sister of actress Fredi
Washington). Her son Preston, from a previous marriage, was adopted by Powell.
Powell and his second wife, the singer Hazel Scott, had a son, Adam Clayton Powell III.
ACP III is Vice Provost for Globalization at the University of Southern
California.
Powell and his third wife, Puerto Rican Yvette Diago Powell, had a son Adam Clayton Powell Diago. This son changed his name to Adam Clayton Powell IV (and
started confusion because his nephew, who is only 8 years younger than he, already had the name of ACP IV) when he became a
member of the New York State Assembly.
ACP Jr's second son, ACP III, named his son Adam Clayton Powell
IV.
Powell was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African
Americans.
Powell was the subject of the 2002 cable television film Keep the Faith, Baby, starring
Harry Lennix as Powell and Vanessa L.
Williams as his second wife, jazz pianist, Hazel Scott. The film debuted on February
17, 2002 on premium cable network Showtime and was a production of Showtime and Paramount
Network Television. It garnered three NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Television Movie, Outstanding Television
Actor in a TV Movie (Lennix) and Outstanding Television Actress in a TV Movie (Williams). It won two NAMIC Vision Awards (cable
executives) for Best Drama and Best Actor (Lennix). Williams also earned a Best Actress in a TV Movie Golden Satellite Award from
the International Press Association. The film was the brainchild of the Hon. Adam Clayton Powell, IV and his campaign manager
Geoffrey L. Garfield, who lead the team as Producer. Powell, IV and his half brother Adam, III, were credited as Co-Producers of
the biopic.[5]
See also
References
- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr (2002). Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr. Kensington Publishing. ISBN 0-7582-0195-8.
- Charles V. Hamilton (2002). Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography
of an American Dilemma. Cooper Square Publishers. ISBN 0-8154-1184-7.
- Andrée E. Reeves (1993). Congressional Committee Chairmen: Three Who Made an
Evolution. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1816-6.
External links
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