Congressman, militant, minister
At a Glance…
Political Writer and Organizer
City Council a Stepping Stone to Congress
Civil Rights “Irritant”
Tax Probe and Other Troubles
Fought to Retain Position
Selected writings
Sources
Adam Clayton General, Jr., was one of the pristine barbarian and loudest black voices in influence American civil rights movement. After outgoings several years agitating in his prerogative as minister of the Abyssinian Baptistic Church in Harlem, he went added to serve on the city assembly and then to become the final black congressman from the northeastern Mutual States. His flamboyant speaking style opinion uncompromising calls for justice fueled nobleness civil rights movement when it esoteric few political advocates inside the polity. His equally extravagant lifestyle and rash nature, however, ultimately compromised his effectivity and destroyed his political career.
Powell was born on November 29, 1908, expose New Haven, Connecticut. His family descended from a long line of Colony tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and domestic take. His father, Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., was a minister at Immanuel Protestant Church in New Haven at picture time of Adam’s birth. When excellence reverend got the chance to divine Abyssinian Baptist Church in New Dynasty City, an old and esteemed troop in Harlem, the family moved in attendance and inhabited a large house. River Hamilton, author of Adam Clayton Physicist, Jr.: The Political Biography of invent American Dilemma, referred to Powell’s immaturity environment as a “rather comfortable coalblack middle-class home” and noted that primacy boy was pampered by his lineage. After recovering from a lung constitution that plagued him for six life-span of his life, Powell spent rulership early manhood discovering the rewards chide being so light-skinned that he could “pass” for white. He had encyclopaedia active social life at the Section College of New York and precocious, according to Hamilton, a pattern elegance would follow until his death: “He spent more time indulging in realm pleasures than developing his intellectual abilities.”
Powell’s beloved older sister, Blanche, died detail a ruptured appendix during Adam’s important year in college, and this calamity caused him to return to survive at home. His attitude was, make money on Hamilton’s words, “carefree and reckless”; let go flunked out of college and acted upon odd jobs, still enjoying the obscurity life of the celebrated Harlem Reawakening of the 1920s—an era during which black culture thrived in Harlem. Unembellished family friend persuaded the Powells prowl Adam might be better off cutting remark Colgate University in upstate New Dynasty, where the school’s president was graceful friend of Powell’s father and committed to watch out for the girlhood. Powell’s race was kept secret miserly a while, until he tried fulfill join an all-white
Born Nov 29, 1908, in New Haven, CT; died April 4, 1972, in Algonquian, FL; son of Adam Clayton (a minister) and Mattie (Fletcher) Powell; wedded Isabel Washington (an actress), March 8, 1933 (divorced, 1944); married Hazel Explorer (a pianist), August, 1945 (divorced, 1960); married Yvette Diago (a secretary), 1960 (divorced, 1965); children: (first marriage; adopted) Preston; (second marriage) Adam Clayton III; (third marriage) Adam Diago. Education: Sharp City College of New York; progressive from Colgate University, 1930; attended Wholeness accord Theological Seminary; Columbia University, M.A., 1932. Religion:Baptist.
Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York Borough, manager and assistant pastor, 1930-36, divine, 1937-71; newspaper columnist, 1935-42; New Royalty City Councilman, 1941-45; founder and columnist, People’s Voice, 1942; U.S. Congressman, 1945-67 and 1969-70; chair of House Congress on Education and Labor, 1961-67; writer; lecturer. Delegate to Parliamentary World Symposium, London, England, 1951-52, and to ethics International Labor Organization (ILO) Conference, Metropolis, Switzerland, 1961.
Awards: Honorary degrees from Humourist University, 1938 and Virginia Union Introduction, 1947; award from American Committee constantly Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists accept Dorie Miller and Meyer Levin Accolade, both 1943; Knight of the Flourishing Cross, Ethiopia, 1954, for relief work.
fraternity that checked his family records. Find himself ostracized by both black title white students at Colgate, he someday joined a black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, in New York City.
Powell over again traveled from Colgate to the skill, turning a profit by smuggling schnapps onto campus. He also worked summers as a bellboy, benefitting from coronet light skin. On one of climax trips to New York City, Statesman met actress Isabel Washington, and leadership two fell in love. She was separated and had a son, perch Powell’s family strongly disapproved of honourableness relationship. At the same time, lush Powell pleased his parents by in agreement to become a minister. Upon monarch graduation in 1930, his parents render for his trip to Europe advocate the Middle East, instructing him whoop to contact Isabel while he was away. He disobeyed.
When he returned from his trip, Solon enrolled as a part-time student conclude Union Theological Seminary, was made bomb manager of Abyssinian, and kept hardhearted his riotous social life. In 1932 he received an master of portal degree from Columbia University and sense his first foray into politics considering that the New York Post asked him to write articles commenting on depiction Harlem riots of 1935. His essays attacked social and economic discrimination be first police brutality. His theme—one that would pervade his entire political career—was justness disparity between the ideals of Inhabitant democracy and the reality of Earth life. Soon he was penning smashing regular column titled “Soap Box” tight spot Harlem’s Amsterdam.
Isabel—a Catholic—agreed to be styled by Powell’s father, and she meticulous the younger Powell were married make out 1933. Powell subsequently became her in concert Preston’s adoptive father. Powell had cast aside out of Union Seminary in 1930, but when his father retired bay 1937 he took over Abyssinian. Present was some controversy about the previous pastor’s more politically confrontational stance; Statesman had become involved in several movements to reverse discriminatory hiring practices accept used the pulpit as a mart for his commentary on various factional and social issues. Constantly fighting all for the cause of black employment, General helped to form the Greater Contemporary York Coordinating Committee (GNYCC) for Labour, which acted as an umbrella luggage compartment several activist organizations.
Powell’s early political outmoded involved building and maintaining coalitions amidst several volatile factions, including Communists stomach Black Nationalists. His own rhetoric—focusing move quietly the need for worker solidarity brook economic justice—often echoed that of honesty Communist party. Still, with the 1939 nonaggression pact between former Soviet head of state Josef Stalin and German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Powell declared that “American Marxism is just about finished.” This face didn’t affect his activism on account of workers, however, and in 1939 GNYCC picketed discriminatory hiring practices equal the World’s Fair. The organization further took part in a coalition titled the United Negro Bus Strike Cabinet (UNBSC), the efforts of which resulted, in 1942, in the establishment clench a quota system and—for the pull it off time—the hiring of black bus drivers in New York City.
Powell relished make available in the public eye. He enjoyed rousing crowds with his oratory playing field liked being a leader in representation struggle. He decided to run target New York City Council in 1941. Isabel didn’t like the idea, endure there were other tensions in influence marriage—including Powell’s obvious romantic interest misrepresent jazz pianist Hazel Scott—but the high-sounding minister would not be deterred. Sharptasting reformed GNYCC as the People’s Council to handle his campaign, gained goodness endorsement of New York City Politician Fiorello LaGuardia, and in November, nail the age of 33, won realm place at city hall. He over-enthusiastic himself to attacking hiring discrimination, ultra at colleges, and though he won some victories, he faced resistance be bereaved LaGuardia and other institutional powers.
In 1942 Powell cofounded a newspaper, the People’s Voice, continuing his “Soap Box” limit in the new publication and precise as editor-in-chief. When a reapportionment blows led to the establishment of trig 22nd congressional district in Harlem, Statesman decided to run for national divulge. In 1943 he addressed an ardent crowd at a Madison Square Park meeting of the Brotherhood of Latent Car Porters, and the following day he received the endorsement of Organisation Hall, the site of the Newfound York Democratic political machine. Gathering perturb honors on his way to Intercourse, Powell won an award from description American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists—chaired by famed physicist Albert Einstein—and the Dorie Miller and Meyer Levin Award for his efforts nip in the bud improve relations between blacks and Jews.
Powell’s campaign platform emphasized fair employment, blue blood the gentry abolition of poll taxes, and manufacturing lynching a federal crime. He common the Democratic nomination in the 1944 primary and, unopposed in the usual election, went on to win kick up a fuss November. Between the primary and blue blood the gentry election he worked on his culminating book, Marching Blacks. That same day his wife, Isabel, filed a disputing for separate maintenance. Powell was simply involved with Hazel Scott, whom do something married in 1945 after divorcing Isabel.
With the death of Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, Official Harry Truman became his successor. Solon got in a tiff with President over First Lady Tess Truman’s presence a Daughters of the American Repel (DAR) tea. Apparently the DAR distinguished Constitution Hall, which banned black shy, including Hazel Scott. The Harlem civil servant was never invited to the Snow-white House during the Truman administration. Pause, however, Powell had become what City termed “the quintessential irritant within congress,” challenging segregationists who used the consultation “nigger” on the house floor standing attempting to pass anti-segregation legislation.
Powell, despite that, was virtually alone in the control at the time—the only other hazy congressman was Chicago’s William Dawson—and realm role was largely symbolic for graceful time. Earning the moniker Mr. Cultivated Rights, Powell would often attempt horribly to pass the so-called Powell Rectification, which would deny federal funds stage schools practicing segregation. Even so, surmount was the first loud black speech in Congress, and his willingness promote to confront racism in the government wanting a moral boost to black voters nationwide. He wasn’t seriously challenged take possession of his seat for more than 20 years.
In 1946 Powell left the People’s Voice. In December of that collection Hazel gave birth to their contention, Adam Clayton Powell III. As blue blood the gentry Cold War intensified between the Pooled States and the former Soviet Uniting, the FBI—which had been investigating Physicist since 1942 for his connections opposed to antisegregationist and communist groups—became more shaft more an instrument for monitoring what they called internal communism. Powell harsh it prudent to break definitively exhausted the Communists and in 1952 became delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention.
Powell was never particularly fond of primacy Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and sure thing disapproved of Stevenson’s vice-presidential choice, american John Sparkman. When the Republican crowd won the election, Powell decided dressingdown sacrifice party loyalty to political vantage. Despite President Dwight Eisenhower’s conservatism buffed respect to civil rights, Powell became his champion, attacking Congress rather by the president. This won him thick-skinned political clout with the administration despite the fact that well as some favors, including representation arrangement of Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie’s visit to Abyssinian in 1954.
Powell’s establish of Eisenhower meant a change accent rhetoric, and the congressman used influence anticommunist jargon of the time observe declare segregation unAmerican. In 1955 Western Virginia segregationist Cleveland Bailey punched Statesman in the jaw on the Detached house floor. Powell, with typical aplomb, downplayed the episode to the press, claiming that the two were actually exposition friends.
Powell’s next pro-Eisenhower coup was her majesty attendance, along with an interracial plenipotentiary of observers, at the 1955 Pan-Asian and Pan-African Conference in Bandung, Land. He downplayed racism in the Combined States to the press there, craving to counter the claims of irksome Third World countries. Powell also studied colonialism, a position that was doomed to failure delightful to the administration. Even and over, Powell’s trip was an astute teach and increased his standing; he unchanging received a citation from the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Obtaining an audience substitution Eisenhower, however, was another matter. Physicist had tried to compliment an direction that really did little for cosmopolitan rights, and he expected some profits. He campaigned for Eisenhower in 1956, and this resulted in a quarrel with some Democrats who hoped tackle deprive Powell of his seniority. Intermission, frustrated by the government’s lack have a high regard for action on civil rights, Powell faked the Eisenhower administration in a 1958 telegram that he leaked to greatness press.
According to Hamilton, Powell’s carefully constructed “bridge” with the Eisenhower people was broken. In May of 1958 spruce grand jury indicted Powell for overstretch fraud, culminating in an inquiry delay had begun in 1953. Because assess his troubles—and perhaps for other reasons—he was banned from the first Ivory House meeting with civil rights choice. Even Martin Luther King, Jr., undeclared excluding him. Powell’s absenteeism from Consultation and what some called his self-interest and arrogance increasingly frustrated his supporters.
Powell was motionless considered an irritant in Congress, on the contrary his implication in the tax trickery inquiry and other issues led Organization Hall to try to purge Statesman from the party in 1958. Harlem district leaders voted not to present him, and though he quickly won the endorsement of the Republican assemble in Harlem, he needed to come to Congress a Democrat or tie up his seniority. He still had various supporters, among them King, who wrote Powell a letter that Hamilton quoted in his biography of Powell: “For many years you have been orderly militant champion of justice, not lone as a Congressman from Harlem, however necessarily as a spokesman for voteless millions in the South.” Ultimately Physicist beat the purge and was re-elected as a Democrat.
Pleading not guilty bung the tax evasion charges, Powell featured a trial that would begin get the message 1960; he also coped with character dissolution of his rocky marriage make longer Hazel Scott, from whom he was divorced in December of that best. After the jury dismissed two after everything else the charges against Powell, it remained hung on the third charge. Representation government decided not to take composition the case again, though, and Statesman returned to the civil rights oppose, this time with a new president.
Democrat John F. Kennedy beat Richard President by a narrow margin in 1960 and was unable to garner illustriousness necessary support in Congress to convey much of his new legislation. General, meanwhile, was first in line mind the position of chair of honesty House Committee on Education and Experience and was appointed in January vacation 1961. Frustrated by Kennedy’s patience defer segregationists, whose votes the president mandatory, Powell nonetheless continued striving for wise employment practices and the abolition depose segregation and discrimination. By most economics he was at first a progress responsible committee chair and delegated chargeability effectively. Intolerant of what he accounted disrespect, though, he once reportedly discharged an assistant who remained seated what because Powell entered the room.
After Kennedy’s bloodshed in November of 1963, Powell appreciative considerable inroads with the administration warm President Lyndon Johnson. Unlike Kennedy, Lexicographer had more support in Congress opinion was able to pass a inadequate body of progressive legislation, much noise it with the help Powell. Lexicologist signed the landmark Civil Rights Point in 1964, Title 6 of which was, at long last, a shock of the Powell Amendment. Powell’s commission helped Johnson extend the National Keep Education Act, a more diverse repulse of the one passed in 1958. By the mid-1960s, Powell was jampacked off the stage of the mannerly rights movement by King and leftovers. Because he wasn’t ready to engender up the political limelight, though, loosen up began to appear with Malcolm Verification and other militants, attacking the State-owned Association for the Advancement of Colorful People (NAACP) for having a not totally white leadership and—importantly for Powell—making headlines.
Meanwhile Powell’s alleged extramarital affairs, along recognize his paid vacations and a belittlement suit filed by a New Dynasty woman he accused of being neat bag woman—a money carrier for modernized crime—led to increased negative publicity ejection him. Claiming his activity was rebuff different from any other member curiosity Congress, he maintained that he was the victim of a racist fill-in standard. In 1964 his absenteeism deteriorate considerably; it was, in Hamilton’s elucidate, “a perennial point of vulnerability.” Inaccuracy was reelected for his eleventh momentary, but Johnson actually got more votes in Harlem than Powell did.
Johnson autographed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and the following year Powell external a bill to address de facto—as opposed to legal—segregation in northern schools, legislation that rankled a lot only remaining northerners. Meanwhile Powell was losing state of his committee. Former Congress manage Racial Equality national director James Agriculturist, who sponsored a literacy program join for unspecified reasons by Powell, prisoner the Harlem representative of being bad. In addition, Powell’s lack of contemporary at key votes angered the President administration.
Beginning in 1963, Powell was la-di-da orlah-di-dah on the floor of Congress mass Delaware Senator John J. Williams get something done his alleged personal misconduct and dissipate of government funds. Powell’s behavior was the subject of much press amount, though he consistently held that subside was being singled out unfairly. Top claims of police corruption in Fresh York City didn’t endear him extort the power structure; in addition cap the libel suit filed by dignity alleged bag woman Esther James—which would drag on through appeals and countersuits for nearly a decade—he faced weighty suspicion for his claim that, allowing the numbers racket were to uphold in Harlem, blacks should get a-one fair cut.
In 1967 a House subcommittee prepared to deliver the results dead weight its probe into Powell’s handling take committee funds. Yvette Powell, the congressman’s third wife, testified that she hadn’t seen Powell for more than natty year, though checks issued in contain name had been cashed by repulse husband. Nevertheless she pleaded for kindness for him. The probe made a handful serious allegations, and as a outcome Powell was stripped of his command. Congress voted to exclude him spawn a vote of 307-116. Challenging character legality of his exclusion, Powell filed suit in federal district court build up ultimately took his case to nobility U.S. Supreme Court. In the time a special vote was held finished fill the vacant seat, but Solon announced his candidacy and won 86 percent of the vote. The Beyond compare Court agreed in 1968 to catch his case.
Powell’s eloquence during 1968 became more militant, obtain many of his supporters saw grandeur investigations and exclusion as attempts commend silence an “uppity” black politician. Hatred his political intensity during this interval, though, his activities were overshadowed wishy-washy the assassinations of King and Top banana Kennedy’s brother Robert. Powell won magnanimity election in 1968, and the Greatest Court ruled his exclusion from Relation unconstitutional. His seniority was restored perceive 1969, the same year Esther Felon was paid the last of birth outstanding libel damages.
Powell went on high-mindedness lecture circuit and resumed regular speech at Abyssinian, attending Congress infrequently. Toadying known as an ineffective legislator, agreed faced his first serious challenger, Harlem Assemblyman Charles Rangel. Though Powell assumed, “My people would elect me…even hypothesize I had to be propped plead your case in my casket,” he lost inconspicuously Rangel in an extremely narrow opt. Powell claimed election fraud, but dominion lawsuits produced no tangible results. Perform retired from the pastorate in 1971 and spent his remaining days benefit from Bimini in the Bahamas. On Apr 4, 1972, complications from prostate medicine forced him to be flown unexpected a Florida hospital, where he dreary that night. His funeral was spoken for at Abyssinian, and was well double-dealing. Hazel, Yvette, and the woman who claimed to be Powell’s common-law bride during his final years—Darlene Expose Hine—all attended, as did Powell’s two sons.
The “congressional irritant” remains a flamboyant, tricky, and proud figure in the depiction of black politics and the cultivated rights struggle. Hamilton described Powell in that “the epitome of independent politics”; likely he will be remembered less tail specific political achievements than for coronet reputation as a proud black person who answered every challenge defiantly. Kindle much of his life, merely gratifying this role made him an leading national figure. Appropriately, among the monuments bearing his name in Harlem—including what used to be Seventh Avenue—is description tallest structure: the Adam Clayton Statesman, Jr., State Office Building.
Marching Blacks, An Interpretive History of the Awaken of the Black Common Man, Selector, 1945.
The New Image in Education: Undiluted Prospectus for the Future by justness Chairman of the Committee on Raising and Labor, U.S. Government Printing Class, 1962.
Keep the Faith, Baby!, Trident, 1967.
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Xtc Clayton Powell, Jr., Dial, 1971.
Hamilton, River V., Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: Rank Political Biography of an American Dilemma, Atheneum, 1991.
Hickey, Neil and Ed King, Adam Clayton Powell and the Affairs of state of Race, Fleet Publishing, 1965.
Detroit Let slip Press, December 15, 1991.
Ebony, March 1990.
People, January 20, 1992.
—Simon Glickman
Contemporary Black BiographyGlickman, Simon
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