Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who represented Harlem in the U.S. Congress from 1945 through 1971, was the first modern African American politician and the first Black Congressman to exercise real power in the halls of Washington, D.C. He succeeded his father as the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church and parlayed the pulpit into a political career. Yet, after scaling the summit of power, Powell lost it all, seemingly fatigued by the failure of liberalism to deliver on providing the American Dream to all Americans, regardless of color, and tripped up by his own moral shortcomings. Due to seniority, Powell eventually rose in Congress and in 1961, became chairman of the Education & Labor Committee, one of the critical committees in the House of Representatives. From this post, Powell was instrumental in passing legislation introduced by Presidents John F. Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, including such watershed programs as Medicare and Medicaid. The social programs tha