Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was a Baptist pastor and an American politician.
Background
He was born on November 29, 1908 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, the son of the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell and Mattie Fletcher Shaffer. The family moved to New York City in 1909 when the elder Powell became the pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Adam, Jr. , grew up in a very comfortable middle-class environment, the pampered child of a successful preacher and a doting parish. The Powells were very light-complexioned and often were assumed to be white by those unaware that they were African Americans.
Education
After graduating from high school, Powell spent one year at City College of New York, where his academic record reflected the fact that he spent more time on his social life than on his studies.
Fearing he would waste his life, his parents enrolled him in Colgate University in 1926. Only the university's president knew that the new student was an African American. When this fact became more widely known, Powell was forced to move out of the white-only dormitory and seek refuge with a handful of other black students, who at first were angry with him for not having acknowledged his racial identity. After graduation in 1930, Powell studied for the ministry.
He spent an unhappy year at Union Theological Seminary, then transferred to Teachers College of Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree in 1932.
Career
He took the helm of Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1937, upon his father's retirement. During the 1930's, he led demonstrations against racial employment discrimination in stores in Harlem, in the city bus company, and utility companies. He also established his reputation as a fiery young leader by writing a weekly column in a Harlem newspaper and by preaching at Abyssinian and around the country. Meanwhile, he maintained a lavish social life.
Powell's activism led him into electoral politics, initially as New York's first black city councilman in 1941, and then, in 1944, as the first black elected to Congress from the Northeast. (A congressional district had been redrawn in 1943 to guarantee the election of a black candidate from Harlem. ) In a field of aspiring black politicians, Powell ultimately received the endorsement of the Democrats, the Republicans, American Labor party, and the local Communist party. In 1942, he established his own newspaper, The People's Voice, which he published until 1946.
When he went to Washington, he immediately began to champion civil rights causes, personally defying segregation laws in the city and on Capitol Hill, and instructing his black staff members to do the same. With the encouragement of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), for several years he attached a provision, known as the "Powell Amendment, " to proposed bills for aid to education, health, and housing that called for no federal funds to be allocated to any agency or district that practiced racial segregation or discrimination.
In 1953, Powell became embroiled in protracted legal controversies over his income taxes. Several of his aides were indicted and convicted of income tax evasion, and there were rumors that Powell received salary kickbacks from his staff. Such charges and investigations continued until he was finally indicted for income tax evasion in 1958. Prior to 1960, Powell served on and gained seniority as a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
In 1956, however, he again demonstrated his unpredictable style when he endorsed Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower for reelection. This action infuriated the regular Democratic party organization (Tammany Hall) in New York City, which challenged his reelection in 1958. Powell's popularity in Harlem was so great, however, that he defeated his primary election opponent by a substantial margin. But there was still sentiment in Congress to punish him for his 1956 defection.
When the chairman of his committee retired, Powell was next in line to head the committee. After President John F. Kennedy's election, Powell became chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, the first black congressman to head such an important committee. Powell was now at the peak of his political career. First, however, he had to survive the tax evasion trial. Through the efforts of his attorney, Edward Bennett Williams, he managed to escape conviction with a hung jury. The Department of Justice decided not to retry the case.
From 1961 to 1966, Powell led his committee in a manner that won praise from Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, as well as from its members. He delegated power to subcommittee chairpersons, and he became very involved in working out political compromises. His committee worked on and shepherded through Congress important bills relating to aid to education, Medicare/Medicaid, and the War on Poverty. In addition, the "Powell Amendment" was finally enacted into law as Title VI of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Throughout this period of intense and effective committee leadership, Powell continued to attract negative publicity that eventually brought his downfall. In 1960, Powell publicly accused Esther James, a woman in his congressional district, of being a "bag woman, " one who carried payoff money from illegal gamblers to the police. The woman sued him for libel, and Powell, characteristically, ignored the many court summonses. The plaintiff won a $211, 000 judgment against him; Powell fought the case in the New York courts for years, refusing to answer court-issued warrants. At one point, he could appear in New York City only on Sundays, in order to avoid being subject to arrest for contempt of court. (Civil warrants could not be served on Sunday. Powell came to the city, preached at Abyssinian, and left at the end of the day. )
He cashed her checks and deposited the funds in his own congressional bank account. He also used committee travel funds for highly publicized trips with female companions to Europe and the Bahamas. Such trips had little relationship to legitimate committee business, although Powell insisted otherwise. He defied his critics, insisting that he did no more and no less than his colleagues were doing.
Finally, Powell's committee severely limited his powers as chairman in September 1966. Although he was reelected in November, the House of Representatives voted in January 1967 not to seat him because of his many transgressions, including the ongoing libel case in New York and the evidence on mismanagement of committee funds. Powell sued in federal court on the grounds that his exclusion violated the Constitution. A special election was held, and Powell won handily.
During that time, Powell worked out a settlement in the libel case and went on the college lecture circuit. His speeches combined vehement attacks on Congress for its treatment of him. The FBI monitored his many moves and speeches, and its reports seriously questioned whether some of his speeches bordered on treason and incitement to riot. As Powell's case made its way to the Supreme Court, two rumors began to circulate in Harlem that ultimately proved true. One was that Powell had cancer; the other, that his Harlem political base was weakening and he was becoming vulnerable to challenge on his home territory. For a time, Powell denied the first (although his physical appearance clearly suggested otherwise) and ignored the second.
In June 1969, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that in fact his exclusion from Congress was unconstitutional. There were only three requirements for service in Congress: age, citizenship, and residence. Powell, being duly elected, satisfied all three. This was the first time the Court had made such a ruling. (Once a member is seated, of course, Congress may expel him or her for various reasons. ) Powell not only had been excluded, he had been denied his twenty-two years of seniority and his chairmanship, and his pay had been reduced to pay off the misused funds. The Supreme Court dealt only with the exclusion. Powell returned to Congress as a freshman with virtually no power. In 1970, several local politicians decided to challenge Powell in the Democratic primary. As always, he believed he was invulnerable, and did little campaigning. In a five-candidate race, Powell came in second, 205 votes behind the ultimate winner, Charles B. Rangel. Powell alleged fraud and threatened to challenge the election in court. But it was clear that neither his health nor his waning political fervor would permit him to go on.
Powell resigned the pastorate of Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1971 and retired with his woman companion to the island of Bimini. He spent his time writing a book about his life.
He died in Miami.
Achievements
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the first person of African-American descent to be elected from New York to Congress. For nearly three decades, Powell became a powerful national politician of the Democratic Party, and served as a national spokesman on civil rights and social issues. As a chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, he supported the passage of important social and civil rights legislation under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Besides, he established his own newspaper, The People's Voice.
Seventh Avenue north of Central Park through Harlem has been renamed as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. One of the landmarks along this street is the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, named for Powell in 1983.
Powell was gaining a reputation as a Democratic maverick. He often criticized President Truman and northern liberals for not being as supportive of civil rights as he felt they should be. His speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives and around the country enhanced his stature as a strong advocate of civil rights. His detractors, on the other hand, saw him increasingly as flamboyant, opportunistic, and unwilling to compromise.
He criticised American involvement in Vietnam.
Connections
In 1933, against his father's wishes, he married a divorced nightclub singer and dancer, Isabel Washington, and adopted her son; they were divorced in 1945. Powell married a prominent jazz pianist, Hazel Scott, in August 1945. He divorced his second wife - they had one son, Adam III - and married Yvette Diago. He was separated from Yvette since 1966.
