Happy Birthday Keep the Faith Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
🎂We commemorate the birthday of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who was born November 29, 1908 in Connecticut, but moved when very young to Harlem with his family. His father was the pastor at the notable Abyssinian Baptist Church, and, young Adam later followed in his father’s footsteps.
His education included a BA at Colgate University and an MA at Columbia University, and was a member of the fraternal organization Alpha Phi Alpha.
While assisting with charitable duties at the Church, Powell also began his involvement with activism. Among his early successes was a 1939 picket line to get more African-Americans employed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and a 1941 bus boycott to get more jobs for African-American drivers.
His political career began locally when he won a City Council seat in 1941, and served as the first African-American Council member. In 1944 he ran for a won a U.S. Congressional seat that included Harlem — he became the first African-American Representative from New York. He fought for civil rights, including the elimination of poll taxes, and clashed with segregationists within the Democratic party.
Powell served 12 terms in the House, and eventually chaired the Committee on Education and Labor, a first for an African-American representative.
Today he is remembered in various ways in New York City: a section of Seventh Avenue was renamed for him; the State Office Building on 125th Street is named in his memory, and there is a dramatic Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in front of the Office Building, showing his coat blowing in the wind like a cape.
For his achievements in the church and in the Congress, we salute him on his birthday.
Watch video — Adam Clayton Powell Jr – “A New Breed of Cats” (1968)