Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

• Born: November 29, 1908
• Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut
• Died: April 4, 1972
• Place of death: Miami, Florida

Activist, politician, and religious leader

Powell, a Democratic New York congressman and civil rights activist, fought against segregation and discrimination throughout his career. In spite of myriad challenges, the indomitable Powell never gave up his dream of racial equality.

Early Life

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1908, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., moved to New York City when he was just six months old after his father became the minister of midtown Manhattan’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. The family, along with many other African Americans, moved to Harlem in the 1920’s, and Powell grew up in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. He attended Townshend Harris High School before heading to college.

In his youth, the light-skinned Powell often lived as a white person to avoid discrimination while attending the City College of New York and then Colgate University. After graduation in 1930, Powell attended Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in religious studies. Early on, he exhibited an activist streak, urging social reforms in his native Harlem, all the while utilizing the Abyssinian Baptist Church as the headquarters for his efforts. His activism extended beyond his boyhood home to question the racism that prevailed in New York City government, earning the respect of the people who would one day elect him to office.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Powell found his calling in the ministry. In 1937, Powell assumed the pastorship of Abyssinian and soon found himself involved in politics. In 1941, he earned a seat on the New York City Council, where he continued to fight against discrimination both locally and nationally. During World War II, he served as a member of New York’s Office of Price Administration and Manhattan’s Civilian Defense Force. When congressional redistricting altered the boundaries of the Twenty-second District to include most of Harlem, Powell jumped at the opportunity to run for a spot in the House of Representatives. Having developed a reputation as a tireless civil rights crusader, not to mention an influential spiritual and political leader in New York, Powell won the election with relative ease, becoming the first African American to represent New York in Congress. When he arrived in Washington, D.C., in 1945, Powell joinedWilliam Dawson of Illinois as the only African American members of Congress.

Life’s Work

At first, Powell treaded cautiously in Washington. Not only was he a freshman member in a chamber where seniority meant everything, but also he was an African American at a time when racial segregation still permeated all facets of life in the nation’s capital, including the House restaurant. Powell soon challenged congressional conventions, living up to the flamboyant reputation that had initially raised him to prominence. Making good on his campaign promises, Powell championed all manner of civil rights legislation, including proposals for fair employment practices as well as bills to outlaw lynching and poll taxes. Year after year, Powell and a small group of devoted civil rights advocates introduced bills to address the status of African Americans, only to meet resistance in Congress. When direct action failed, Powell took the more circuitous route of trying to add antidiscrimination riders to all manner of legislation. Although securing the admiration of his constituents and civil rights champions throughout America, his actions often raised the ire of those who resented his race and his willingness to flout convention.

Wherever possible, Powell challenged the entrenched segregation that existed on Capitol Hill. From demanding the desegregation of the press gallery to dining at the whites-only House restaurant, often with black constituents in tow, Powell worked constantly to promote equality. Despite verbal and occasionally physical altercations with segregationists in the House, Powell’s career soared and, for a time, he was arguably the premier civil rights leader in America. In 1946, he published his first book, Marching Blacks, urging African Americans who were disgusted with racial injustice in the South to head north for greater opportunity. From the Eighty-seventh to the Eighty-ninth Congresses, Powell chaired the Committee on Education and Labor, where he continued to work for racial equality and fight poverty. His tenure as head of the committee proved noteworthy for its extraordinary activity. Everything from juvenile delinquency to minimum-wage increases to funding for schools was addressed, and Powell’s committee threw its support behind needed reforms.

Powell’s vision was not limited to domestic concerns. Throughout his career, he attempted to alert government leaders to the importance of establishing relationships with the nations of Africa and Asia. His beliefs went beyond mere rhetoric: In 1955, Powell defied the wishes of the State Department and headed to Bandung, Indonesia, to attend a conference ostensibly designed to forge a Third World political alliance against colonialism and nuclear proliferation. International communist leaders stacked the gathering with their partisans in the hope of finding recruits for their cause among the impoverished nations of the world. Reporters from the Soviet Union’s official mouthpiece, Pravda, sought out Powell for an interview, fully expecting that he would rail against the racial injustice found in America. Instead, Powell emphasized how far the nation had come in improving race relations, using his own remarkable career as an example of the growing opportunities available to minorities. His actions in Bandung—coming as they did amid the Cold War—transformed the perceptions that many had of the New York congressman. Powell made front-page news, and his pro-America stance won him accolades from former critics.

Powell’s reputation, however, could not outshine the personal and political problems that plagued him. In the 1956 presidential election, Powell, a lifelong Democrat, threw his support behind Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower’s reelection bid. Powell’s reasoning was simple: Although he had no qualms about Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, he did have issues with its vice presidential candidate, segregationist senator John Sparkman from Alabama. Southern Democrats tried in vain to strip Powell of his seniority, and he faced a wide array of malfeasance charges. Rumors of tax evasion dogged Abyssinnian Church personnel and soon extended all the way to Powell himself. In 1960, Powell stood trial for tax evasion; the case ended in a mistrial. Questions regarding Powell’s record and character persisted. He was depicted as an absentee congressman, someone who preferred to be anywhere but in Washington. In comparison with many of his House colleagues, Powell traveled extensively throughout the country and the world, leading to additional charges that his junkets wasted taxpayer money. Because of growing concerns about his legal problems, the House membership in 1967 refused to seat Powell at the start of the Ninetieth Congress. In an election to fill his seat, Harlem residents overwhelmingly voted to return Powell to office. Knowing what would happen if he returned to Washington, Powell spent his term in the Bahamas. Reelected in 1968, Powell returned to Washington to serve out his twelfth term in Congress. He narrowly failed to win reelection in 1970. His political career over, Powell moved to the Bahamas, where he fell ill in April, 1972. He was flown to a hospital in Miami, where he died on April 4.

Significance

Powell was a pioneer in the civil rights crusade in America. In Washington, he battled for decades to bring an end to segregation and discrimination. Later in his career, he saw the realization of some of his objectives with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He regularly urged reforms that would lessen the plight of black Americans in northern urban centers who largely fell beyond the scope of the landmark civil rights legislation in the 1960’s. When President Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled his Great Society programs and War on Poverty, he found a willing ally in the New York congressman, who proved a tireless champion of the president’s sweeping social programs. Powell’s legacy thus extends beyond civil rights to include an intense interest in helping the poor and less fortunate, regardless of race. In Powell’s home district of Harlem, an office building and a street are named for him.

Bibliography

Dionisopaulas, P. Allan. Rebellion, Racism, and Representation: The Adam Clayton Powell Case and Its Antecedents. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1970. Explores the factors that shaped congressional action to unseat Powell.

Finley, Keith M. Delaying the Dream: Southern Senators and the Fight Against Civil Rights, 1938-1965. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 2008. Offers excellent context for the twentieth century civil rights struggle in Washington.

Hamilton, Charles V. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma. New York: Atheneum, 1991. Solid biography of the colorful and controversial New York politician whose personal foibles sometimes overshadowed his remarkable achievements.

Haygood, Wil. King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 1993. Reprint. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. This landmark biography of Powell utilizes a wide array of sources to capture his life and times.

Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 1971. Reprint. New York: Kensington, 2002. Powell explains his actions, his motivations, and the controversies that made him famous.