Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 1908–1972

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1908. After graduating from Colgate University, Powell became active in Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, where his father was minister. He received a master’s degree from Columbia University, followed by theological studies at Shaw University, and assumed leadership of the Abyssinian Baptist Church congregation in 1937. Powell, an ordained minister, used the church as his base of operations to provide free meals and clothing and to protest discrimination against African Americans in Harlem’s white-owned businesses and segregated hospital. In 1941 Powell ran for the City Council of New York and won. Three years later he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Harlem in the newly formed and predominantly black eighteenth congressional district—a position he used to advocate major civil rights legislation over the next two decades.