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Saturday October 11th 2008 |
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Saturday October 11th 2008 |
a non-profit education organization | |
November 29
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Powell moved to New York City where his father administered the Abyssinian Baptist Church. After attending public schools, he graduated from Colgate University and received his M. A. in religious education from Columbia University. During the Depression, while handling business affairs at his fathers’ church, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., established himself as a charismatic and successful civil rights leader. He organized mass meetings, rent strikes and public campaigns that forced restaurants, stores, bus lines, utilities, telephone companies, the Harlem hospital and the 1939 Worlds Fair either to hire or begin to promoting black employees. From 1936 to 1944, he published The Peoples Voice Newspaper, served New York State office of Price Administration and the Manhattan Civilian Defense. He was elected to Congress in 1945, serving o the Indian Affairs, Invalid Pensions and Labor Committees. Soon after his arrival in Washington D. C. he challenged the informal regulations forbidding black representatives from using Capitol facilities reserved for members only. On the house floor, he clashed immediately with one of the chambers most notorious segregationist, John E. Rankin of Mississippi. Powell attached an anti-discrimination clause to so many pieces of legislation that the rider became known as the Powell Amendment. In 1955, he attended the landmark Bandung Conference of African and Asian nations, returning to urge the Eisenhower administration to pay attention to the emerging third world. The early 60s were productive years for his congressional career. The committee approved over fifty measures authorizing federal programs for areas from minimum wage increases & education & training for the deaf, too student loans & school lunches. Because of his many political enemies and a slander judgment against him, the House Democratic Caucus stripped Powell of is committee chairmanship in 1967and would not seat him until completion of an investigation by the Judiciary Committee. A ruling two years later in his favor returned him to his seat in the Ninetieth Congress, but without his seniority. Powell Jr. had extraordinary local support from Harlem residents to the very end of his controversial career. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., unsuccessfully sought re-nomination in 1970, then retired as a minister and died in 1972. Reference: Black Heroes of The Twentieth Century Edited by Jessie Carney Smith Copyright 1998 Visible Ink Press, Detroit, MI ISBN 1-57859-021-3 Abyssinian Baptist Church to be a Politician
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The African American Registry®, The African American Registry® Copyright 2005, 2006
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