Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr., 1908-1972

POWELL, ADAM CLAYTON, JR., a Representative from New York; born in New Haven, Conn., November 29, 1908; attended the public schools of New York City; graduated from Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y., 1930; graduated from Columbia University, New York, N.Y., 1932; graduated from Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C., 1934; ordained minister; member of the New York, N.Y., city council, 1941; newspaper publisher and editor; journalist; instructor, Columbia University Extension School, 1932-1940; cofounder of the National Negro Congress; member of the New York state, Consumer Division, Office of Price Administration, 1942-1944; member of the Manhattan Civilian Defense 1942-1945; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth and to the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1945-January 3, 1967); elected as a Democrat to the Ninetieth Congress, but was not sworn in and, pursuant to H.Res. 278, on March 1, 1967, was excluded from membership; elected as a Democrat to the Ninetieth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by his exclusion but was not sworn in; reelected to the Ninety-first Congress (January 3, 1969-January 3, 1971); unsuccessful candidate for renomination to the Ninety-second Congress in 1970; chairman, Committee on Education and Labor (Eighty-seventh through Eighty-ninth Congresses); died on April 4, 1972, in Miami, Fla.; cremated and ashes scattered over South Bimini in the Bahamas.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; Born November 29, 1908, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.; Died April 4, 1972 (aged 63), Miami, Florida, U.S.; second child and only son of Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Mattie Buster Shaffer, both born poor in Virginia and West Virginia, respectively; His parents were of mixed race with African and European ancestry; By 1908, Powell Sr. had become a prominent Baptist minister, serving as a pastor in Philadelphia, and as lead pastor at a Baptist church in New Haven; Due to his father's achievements, Powell grew up in a wealthy household in New York City. Because of his mixed European ancestry, Adam was born with hazel eyes, fair skin and blond hair, such that he could pass for white. However, he did not play with that racial ambiguity until college; He attended Townsend Harris High School, then studied at City College of New York before starting at Colgate University in upstate as a freshman. The four other African-American students at Colgate at the time were all athletes. For a time, Powell briefly passed as white, using his appearance to escape racial strictures at college. The other black students were dismayed to discover what he had done; After returning to New York, Powell began his graduate work and in 1931 earned an M.A. in religious education from Columbia University. He became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first African-American, intercollegiate Greek-lettered fraternity; Later, apparently trying to bolster his black identity, Powell would say that his paternal grandparents were born into slavery; During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Powell, a handsome and charismatic figure, became a prominent civil rights leader in Harlem; In 1938, Powell succeeded his father as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church; In 1941, with the aid of New York City's use of the single transferable vote, Powell was elected to the New York City Council as the city's first black Council member; In 1944, Powell ran for the United States Congress on a platform of civil rights for African Americans: support for "fair employment practices, and a ban on poll taxes and lynching. Powell was elected as a Democrat to represent the Congressional District that included Harlem.[25] He was the first black Congressman elected from New York State; In 1961, after 15 years in Congress, Powell advanced to chairman of the powerful United States House Committee on Education and Labor; By the mid-1960s, Powell was increasingly being criticized for mismanaging his committee's budget, taking trips abroad at public expense, and missing meetings of his committee;