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Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1908. After graduating from Colgate University, Powell became active in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, where his father was minister. He received a master's degree from Columbia University, followed by theological studies at Shaw University, and assumed leadership of the Abyssinian Baptist Church congregation in 1937. Powell, an ordained minister, used the church as his base of operations to provide free meals and clothing and to protest discrimination against African Americans in Harlem's white-owned businesses and segregated hospital. In 1941 Powell ran for the City Council of New York and won. Three years later he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Harlem in the newly formed and predominantly black eighteenth congressional district--a position he used to advocate major civil rights legislation over the next two decades.

Rising to the position of chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee in 1961, Powell was instrumental in passing federal legislation that brought minimum wages to all black workers, desegregated public facilities, and re-enfranchised African Americans. In 1967 Powell was stripped of his chairmanship and expelled from Congress for misappropriation of funds. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated him, but he was unable to return to his position as committee chair. A pioneer of both the modern civil rights movement and the Black Power movement that followed, Powell was married three times and had three children. He died in Miami on April 4, 1972. Powell was loved by much of black America for his independence and audacity in the realm of politics; he was derided, if not feared, by his colleagues in Congress for the same reasons and was almost constantly at odds with Tammany Hall, the New York Democratic Party clubhouse.

Charismatic and politically astute, Powell came to exude black pride, despite being so light-skinned that he was often mistaken for a white person in public. As a student at Colgate he initially had tried to hide the fact that he was African American. However, he was "exposed" as black after a rumor spread that he was trying to pass as white. Humiliated for trying to keep his blackness a secret, he decided from that point forward to fight for racial justice. He quickly developed leadership skills and spoke out wherever and whenever he could on behalf of black men and women.

Powell's commitment to the poor, with an emphasis on the black poor and working class, was virtually unquestioned-- despite his flamboyant lifestyle. He was a respected Christian minister and preached a form of liberation theology to the downtrodden; he was also known as an avid night clubber, who dated a range of women, wore flashy designer clothes, and drove a Jaguar sports car. Politically, as in his personal life, he could not easily be categorized. Although he was a registered Democrat, Powell was never fully committed to any one party or faction within it. He remained largely independent. He won office with the support of Socialists, Communists, and the American Labor Party. He worked with Republicans and progressive northern Democrats but remained unyielding toward Dixiecrats (conservative southern Democrats) and lashed out at any liberals whom he perceived to be standing in his way or dragging their feet when it came to civil and political rights. In 1956 Powell endorsed the Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower; four years later, he endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and, at various points in his career, threatened to either run as an independent for office or form a third party. His core base throughout his political career remained the Abyssinian Baptist Church--at the time, the nation's largest black congregation.

Powell's life was a source of fascination to his contemporaries and those who followed. Ultimately, his political legacy is that of a resilient rebel, a fierce and determined political operator, a public rabble-rouser against racial discrimination. He was the black congressman from Harlem who authored and helped enact some of the most sweeping legislation in American history--including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which under Title VI, authorized federal agencies to withhold aid to any institutions that practiced racial segregation. The act embodied the long-standing "Powell Amendment," a rider that the congressman attempted to attach to any bill seeking federal funds in order to attack discrimination against African Americans.

References:

1. Alexander, E. Curtis. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: A Black Power Political Educator. New York: ECA Associates, 1983.

2. Dionisopoulos, P. Allan. Rebellion, Racism, and Representation: The Adam Clayton Powell Case and Its Antecedents. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1970.

3. Hamilton, Charles V. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma. New York: Atheneum, 1991.

4. Hapgood, David. The Purge That Failed: Tammany v. Powell. New York: Holt, 1959.

5. Haskins, James. Adam Clayton Powell: Portrait of a Marching Black. New York: Dial Press, 1974.

6. Haygood, Wil. King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

7. Hickey, Neil, and Ed Edwin. Adam Clayton Powell and the Politics of Race. New York: Fleet Publishing, 1965.

8. Jacoubek, Robert E. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

9. Lewis, Claude. Adam Clayton Powell. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, 1963.

10.Paris, Peter J. Black Leaders in Conflict: Joseph H. Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1978.

11.Weeks, Kent M. Adam Clayton Powell and the Supreme Court. New York: Dunellen, 1971.

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