Glossary
| Powell, Adam Clayton | | Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was the first African American politician to gain substantive power in the United States Congress. Born in 1908, Powell would go on to stage protests in the 1930s in Harlem, and in 1944 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives for the district of Harlem. Powell clashed with people on Capitol Hill, sometimes those in his own party, especially when he took black constituents to dine with him in the "whites only" dining room of the Capitol. He remained in Congress until 1970, surving expulsion in 1967 when the Supreme Court ruled that the House had acted illegally in preventing him from taking his seat. He lost a primary in 1970 to Charles Rangel, and Powell retired to Florida where he passed away two years later. Despite the scandal that surrounded the end of his career, Powell was instrumental in the passing of a number of important pieces of social legislation and was a tireless fighter for equality. |
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