An unapologetic activist, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New
York left his mark on Congress during his 12 terms in the
U.S. House of Representatives. Powell earned the support
of many African Americans in his Harlem district and
across the nation for his legislative battles against racial
discrimination. Never one to shun the spotlight, the New
York minister and politician relished his position as a
spokesperson for the advancement of African-American
civil and political rights. Powell fought tirelessly to pass
civil rights legislation and harness the power of the federal
government to combat segregation. Speaking in Chicago in
1965, Powell reflected on his position in the House, where
he had become chair of the Committee on Education and
Labor with jurisdiction over legislation related to schools,
job programs, and anti-poverty efforts. “This is legislative
power. This is political power.” Powell insisted. “I use myself
as an example because this is the audacious power I urge
every black woman and man in this audience to seek.”1
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven,
Connecticut, on November 29, 1908. At the age of six
months, he moved to New York City with his older sister
Blanche and his parents, Mattie and Adam Clayton Powell
Sr., a Baptist preacher. The family relocated to New York when the elder Powell was assigned to serve as a minister at the century-old Abyssinian Baptist Church in midtown
Manhattan. Under his leadership, the congregation grew
into one of the largest in the United States, and Powell Sr.
oversaw the move of the church to Harlem in the 1920s.2
After graduating from Townsend Harris High School in
New York, Powell attended the City College of New York.
In 1926, he transferred to Colgate University in Hamilton,
New York. As an undergraduate, he often circumvented the
socially accepted racial barriers of the period because many
students and faculty assumed he was White. When he tried
to join an all-White fraternity, the students inquired into his
background and rejected him. Powell was criticized by the
small number of Black students at Colgate for this attempt
to pass as White. This experience led Powell to a personal
reckoning about race and his place in American society.3
A year after graduating from Colgate in 1930, Powell
earned a master’s degree in religious education from
Columbia University in New York City. In 1933, Powell
married Isabel Washington, an actress. Powell later adopted
Washington’s son, Preston, from her previous marriage.
After Powell and Washington divorced, Powell married
musician, singer, and actor Hazel Scott in 1945; they had a son, Adam Clayton Powell III. They divorced in 1960, and that same year Powell married Yvette Flores Diago.
They had a son, Adam Clayton Powell IV.4
Powell used his position as assistant minister and business
manager of the Abyssinian Church to press for change in the
predominantly African-American community in Harlem. In
the early 1930s, he organized mass meetings and a march to
demand reforms at Harlem Hospital, which had a history of
discriminatory practices towards Black doctors and nurses.
Beginning in 1932, he administered a church-sponsored
relief program that provided food, clothing, and temporary
jobs for thousands of Harlem’s homeless and unemployed.
During the Great Depression, Powell established himself as
a charismatic and commanding civil rights leader—directing
mass meetings, rent strikes, and public campaigns that
forced employers including restaurants, utilities, Harlem
Hospital, and the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City to
hire or promote Black workers. Powell’s early social activism
earned him the steadfast support of Harlem residents and
helped lay the foundation for his future political career.5
In 1937, Powell succeeded his father as pastor of
Abyssinian Baptist Church. A popular community leader,
he decided to run for local office. After earning the
endorsement of New York City mayor Fiorello Henry
La Guardia, the 33-year-old Powell easily won a seat on
the New York City council in 1941. During World War
II, Powell used speaking engagements and columns in
The People’s Voice, a weekly newspaper he published and
edited from 1941 to 1945, to attract national attention,
denouncing racial discrimination within the United States
and calling for the end of segregation in the U.S. military.
Powell gained additional political experience during the war
years by serving on the consumer division of the New York
State office of price administration.6
In 1942, following the 1940 Census, New York officials
created a new congressional district that encompassed much
of Harlem and was nearly 90 percent Black. Powell’s local
civil rights activism and city council service positioned
him for a strong bid for the new House seat in 1944.
His campaign platform focused on the advancement of
African-American rights, including the promotion of fair
employment practices and a ban on poll taxes and lynching.
Powell received support from two influential organizations
in the newly drawn district: the Abyssinian Church and
the local Democratic machine, Tammany Hall. But Powell,
who said that he would “never be a machine man,” worked to put distance between his candidacy and the influence of Tammany. “I will represent the Negro people first,” he said.
“I will represent after that all the other American people.”
He later clarified his remarks, emphasizing that he would
represent the people of his Harlem district “irrespective of
race, creed or political affiliation.”7
Powell’s Republican opponent was Sara Pelham Speaks,
a Harlem lawyer. Both Powell and Speaks took advantage
of state election laws allowing candidates to run in multiple
party primaries. But Speaks proved no match for Powell,
who won the Democratic primary with more than 80
percent of the vote and the GOP primary with 57 percent.
Powell also received the American Labor Party designation,
allowing him to run unopposed in the general election and
earn a spot in the 79th Congress (1945–1947). He was the
first African-American Member of Congress to represent
New York. Powell’s demand for racial equality and his
uncompromising demeanor resonated with his Harlem
constituents, whose strong backing essentially guaranteed
Powell a House seat for most of his career.8
When Congress convened on January 3, 1945, William L.
Dawson of Illinois, the only other Black Representative,
escorted Powell into the House Chamber for his first day
in office. Powell and Dawson remained the only African-
American Members of Congress from 1945 to 1955.
During his first term on Capitol Hill, Powell served on the
Committees on Indian Affairs, Invalid Pensions, and Labor.
Powell was also a member of the Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs from the 84th through the 86th Congress
(1955–1961). In 1947, the House merged the Education
Committee and the Labor Committee, and Powell remained
on the new panel for 11 terms. In the 87th Congress
(1961–1963), Powell was named chair of the Education
and Labor Committee, holding the gavel for three terms.
He was the second Black Representative to chair a standing
committee in the House—William Dawson had first
achieved that honor in 1949.9
During Powell’s first term, he introduced legislation to
extend congressional representation and the right to choose
presidential electors to District of Columbia residents.
He also sponsored bills to outlaw lynching and the poll
tax, to end segregation in the armed forces and public
transportation, and to prohibit employment discrimination.10
Soon after his arrival in Washington, Powell challenged the
informal regulations forbidding Black Representatives from
using Capitol facilities reserved for Members. Following the lead of Oscar De Priest, Powell often took Black constituents to the Whites-only House restaurant and ordered his staff to
eat there. Powell also successfully campaigned to allow Black
reporters in the House Chamber’s press gallery in 1947.11
Powell’s uncompromising stance on discrimination
within Congress led to numerous confrontations with
John Elliott Rankin, a Democrat from Mississippi and one
of the chamber’s most notorious segregationists. Even before
Powell’s election to Congress, Rankin disparaged attempts
to integrate the Capitol. In 1943, Rankin condemned
protesters as a “gang of communistic Jews and Negroes”
trying “to storm the House restaurant, and went around
here arm in arm with each other.” When Rankin made
known his intention to avoid sitting near African-American
Members on the House Floor, Powell responded to the
insult by sitting close to Rankin whenever possible. Powell
noted he was “happy that Rankin will not sit by me because
that makes it mutual. The only people with whom he is
qualified to sit are Hitler and Mussolini.” Powell’s maiden
speech on the House Floor condemned a racist attack
Rankin had made on Jewish journalist Walter Winchell.
“Last week democracy was shamed by the uncalled for
and unfounded condemnation of one of America’s great
minorities.” Powell continued, “I am not a member of that
great minority, but I will always oppose anyone who tries
to besmirch any group because of race, creed or color.”
Powell also denounced the racial slurs uttered in the House
by Rankin and other southern Democrats, at one point
demanding a parliamentary inquiry into whether the use of
“disparaging terms” on the floor was acceptable under the
House Rules.12
In 1945, Powell spoke out against the Daughters of
the American Revolution (DAR). DAR had refused to
allow his wife, Hazel Scott, a jazz pianist and singer, to
perform in the concert venue owned by the organization,
Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. A few years earlier,
DAR had barred Marian Anderson, an African-American
singer, from performing in the concert hall. In response,
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for her to perform
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial instead. Hopeful
that First Lady Bess Truman’s reaction would be similar
to Roosevelt’s, Powell became enraged when she refused
to intercede. His characterization of Bess Truman as the
“last lady” of the land, in response to her decision to attend
a previously scheduled DAR tea, instigated a lingering feud
between President Harry S. Truman and the New York Representative that resulted in Powell’s exile from the White
House during Truman’s years in office. Though the Truman
administration eventually denounced DAR’s decision to
deny Scott the opportunity to perform, the disagreement
also fueled a heated debate on the House Floor in which
Rankin insinuated that Powell had directed “communistic
attacks” at the President and the First Lady.13
In the 81st Congress (1949–1951), Powell introduced a
fair employment practices bill, which would have prohibited
discrimination in hiring and established a permanent Fair
Employment Practices Committee. In 1949, Powell became
the first Black Representative to chair a subcommittee when
he was appointed to lead the Committee on Education
and Labor’s special subcommittee on the legislation.
The subcommittee held extensive hearings in May 1949.
Powell pushed against efforts to water down the bill in the
House and Senate. The bill eventually passed the House
but not before opponents had significantly altered it with
amendments. Then the measure stalled in the Senate.14
One of Powell’s lasting legislative contributions was an
anti-discrimination clause he attached to federal spending
bills to ensure that Congress did not direct public funds on
organizations or programs that denied equal opportunity
to all Americans. He deployed this rider so often it became
known as the Powell Amendment. His first attempt to make
use of this tactic, in an amendment added to a 1946 school
lunch bill that prohibited federal funds to any states that
discriminated in the disbursement of the money, became
law. Significantly, Powell’s first rider did not challenge
segregation, rather Powell called for funds to be “allocated
fairly” even within segregated school systems. Powell
wanted to force his colleagues to reckon with disparities in
federal funding and consistently introduced his rider into
debate on appropriations bills. Working with the NAACP,
he refined his amendment to include an anti-segregation
clause. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in
Brown v. Board of Education, Powell added his amendment
to ensure that no funds would support segregated schools
to the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration’s 1956 school
construction bill. This proved controversial even among
liberal anti-segregationists, some of whom feared that an
uncompromising approach might jeopardize the bill. When
the bill was defeated, Powell was accused of stalling school
funding, but he stood firmly by his efforts. After nearly two
decades of amendments, Powell’s rider was included in Title
VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.15
Powell’s commitment to using the federal treasury to
ensure the equal treatment of Black Americans earned him
the nickname “Mr. Civil Rights.” Similar to the efforts of
other civil rights leaders, Powell’s stance came with certain
risks in an institution not known for its tolerance. During a
July 1955 meeting of the Education and Labor Committee,
avowed segregationist and West Virginia Democrat
Cleveland Monroe Bailey punched Powell in the jaw out
of anger from what he perceived as Powell’s continued
efforts to undermine the committee’s legislative efforts with
his rider. The encounter, which drew national attention,
apparently ended with a conciliatory handshake.16
Powell often framed the Black struggle for civil and
political rights in the United States in an international
context. In 1955, he attended the Bandung Conference
in Indonesia, despite efforts by U.S. officials to dissuade
him. Privately, U.S. Department of State officials expressed
concern that Powell’s presence at Bandung might be
interpreted as a sign of tacit U.S. approval for the
conference, which brought together non-aligned nations
in the Cold War conflict between the United States and
the Soviet Union. While Powell observed the meeting of
newly independent African and Asian nations, reporters
confronted him about the appalling conditions faced
by African Americans. Acknowledging the existence of
discrimination back home, Powell pointed to himself as
an example of improved circumstances for minority groups
in the United States. Upon his return, he urged President
Eisenhower and other American policymakers to stand
firm against colonialism and to pay greater attention to
developing nations. To keep the issue in the public eye,
Powell made speeches on the House Floor that celebrated
the anniversaries of the independence of nations such as
Ghana, Indonesia, and Sierra Leone.17
During much of his tenure in the House, Powell used
his platform as a Member of Congress to attract headlines
beyond Capitol Hill. He received national attention when he
broke ranks with the Democratic Party to endorse President
Eisenhower’s re-election bid in 1956. Powell threw his
support behind Eisenhower’s Republican administration
because he was dissatisfied with the Democratic nominee
for President, Adlai Stevenson, and his choice for Vice
President, Alabama Senator John Jackson Sparkman.
Southern Democrats sought to retaliate against Powell,
calling for Democratic leaders to strip him of his seniority.
The NAACP defended Powell, persuading Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas and Representative Emanuel Celler—dean of the New York delegation and chairman of the Judiciary
Committee—not to take punitive action. Nevertheless,
Powell’s House enemies succeeded in firing two of Powell’s
patronage appointees. Of greater consequence to Powell’s
career, Education and Labor Committee Chair Graham
Arthur Barden of North Carolina, a fervent segregationist,
denied Powell one of the five subcommittee chairmanships,
even though he was the third-ranking Democrat on the full
committee.18
In 1958, Powell was indicted for income tax evasion by
a federal grand jury. The 1960 trial ended with a hung jury,
but the federal government continued to investigate his
finances. Tammany Hall withdrew its support for Powell in
the 1958 Democratic primary—a decision machine leaders
claimed stemmed from the New York Representative’s
support for Eisenhower, not his legal problems—and backed
Black candidate Earl Brown, a Harlem city councilman.
Nevertheless, Powell easily captured the nomination for his
Harlem district.19
In the 1960s, the New York Representative was criticized
for taking numerous trips abroad at public expense, payroll
discrepancies, and a high level of absenteeism for House
votes. Asked to justify his erratic attendance record on the
Hill, Powell replied, “You don’t have to be there if you know
which calls to make, which buttons to push, which favors
to call in.” For most of his career, Powell remained relatively
unscathed by public criticism. He was re-elected with ease
and lost little in terms of legislative clout on Capitol Hill.20
When Representative Barden retired after the 86th
Congress (1959–1961), Powell, next in seniority, became
chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, a position
he held until January 1967. Powell’s service as chair
marked the most productive period of his congressional
career. The committee approved more than 50 measures
authorizing federal programs for increases in the minimum
wage, education and job training opportunities for deaf
Americans, school lunches, vocational training, student
loans, and standards for wages and work hours, as well as aid
for institutions of elementary and secondary education and
public libraries. “We have been a more productive committee
in the last year and a half than the New Deal,” a committee
member noted in 1965. “It has been under Powell’s
chairmanship and you’ve got to give him credit for that.”21
The legislation introduced by Powell’s committee
helped shape much of the social policy agenda of the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. In particular, Powell worked closely on bills related to
President Johnson’s signature initiatives, the Great Society
and the War on Poverty. From the 87th Congress to
the 89th Congress (1961–1967), for example, Powell’s
committee held hearings on bills related to education and
antipoverty programs. Powell also personally chaired the
Ad Hoc Subcommittee on the War on Poverty Program
in the 88th Congress (1963–1965), which held extensive
hearings on the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.22
By the mid-1960s, Powell faced criticism not only
from longtime enemies but also from committee members
dismayed by his irregular management of the committee
budget. Those who often interacted with Powell as a
committee chair were critical of his frequent absences
and unpredictability. His actions off the Hill continued
to elicit criticism from colleagues and the public. In
1963, for instance, Powell refused to pay compensation
to New Yorker Esther James, who won a court-ordered
slander judgment against Powell after he alleged she was
transporting money from gamblers to corrupt police
officers in Harlem. The public case, which lasted several
years, irked Powell’s colleagues and led to the New York
Representative adopting a self-imposed exile from his
district. For more than a year, Powell avoided arrest by
making brief appearances in Harlem only on Sundays
since state law prohibited serving civil contempt warrants
on that day of the week.23
Amid mounting legal problems, questions about his
wife’s role on his congressional staff, and accusations that
he had misused travel funds for personal business, the
House confronted Powell in the 89th Congress (1965–1967). Lawmakers established a special subcommittee of
the Committee on House Administration to investigate
the accusations against the Harlem Congressman. Led
by Wayne Levere Hays of Ohio, the subcommittee held
hearings in December 1966 and, in its final report,
substantiated the allegations against Powell and concluded
that he had misused the finances of the Education and
Labor Committee.24
The subcommittee compiled sufficient evidence to
spur the House Democratic Caucus to strip Powell of his
committee chair on January 9, 1967. Powell had won
re-election easily, but on January 10, as the new Congress
convened on the House Floor, Powell was told to step aside
as Members were sworn in. The House then passed House
Resolution 1, which created a select committee to determine
if Powell should be seated. On February 23, the chair of
the select committee reported its findings. Although the
committee majority decided that Powell should be sworn
in, it also advised that he be censured, fined, and stripped of
seniority. One of the committee members, John Conyers Jr.
of Michigan, cited precedent saying that punishment for
past misconduct cases had never exceeded censure and that
no other Member had been stripped of seniority.25
On March 1, 1967, the House rejected these proposals
and voted 307 to 116 to exclude Powell from the 90th
Congress (1967–1969). Powell was subsequently re-elected to
fill his own vacancy on April 11, 1967, with 86 percent of the
vote but refused to take his seat and spent most of the term
on the island of Bimini in The Bahamas. “Keep the faith,
baby,” Powell said when questioned about his exclusion from
the House, confident that his actions would be vindicated.26
After he was re-elected to a twelfth term in November
1968, the House allowed Powell to take his seat when he
arrived for the 91st Congress (1969–1971), but his colleagues
voted to deny him his seniority and to fine him for misusing
payroll and travel finances. Powell also took the House to
court, claiming it did not have the authority to keep him
from taking his office in March 1967. In June 1969, the
Supreme Court ruled the House had acted unconstitutionally
by excluding Powell from the 90th Congress.27
Despite the legal absolution, Powell never regained his
former influence or authority in Congress. Still confident
he would earn another term in the House, Powell entered
the Democratic primary in 1970 and declared, “My people
would elect me . . . even if I had to be propped up in my
casket.” Some of his constituents, however, had grown tired
of his legal troubles, negative publicity, and infrequent
attendance in Congress. His strongest opponent in the
primary, Harlem-based New York state assemblyman
Charles B. Rangel, highlighted Powell’s absenteeism, using
campaign literature marking the major votes he had missed.
Even in the face of a formidable primary challenge, Powell
made few public appearances. Rangel, who benefited from
redistricting that diluted Powell’s base of power in Harlem
by adding to the district a slice of the mostly White Upper
West Side, won the primary by a slim 200-vote margin
to become the Democratic candidate and the eventual
Representative for his district. Powell contested the primary
election results, but although the recount reduced the
margin of victory from 203 to 150 votes, Rangel prevailed.28
Powell had been diagnosed with cancer in 1969, and his
health declined after he left Congress in January 1971. He
retired as minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and
spent most of his time in Bimini. He died on April 4, 1972,
in Miami, Florida.29
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