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Adam Clayton Powell

(Continued from page 35)

[[images - 5 black & white photographs of scenes from the funeral service for Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.]]

elected the first Black Congressman to go to Washington to represent the District of Harlem.

It did not take long before his fame spread as an authentic Civil Righter for Blacks who looked white just as Hodding Carter, a white man from the South, was among the first real white Civil Right fighters for the blacks among the whites of the south.

Adam's trials and tribulations in the Congress of the United States started from the jump. Here was the case of a young dynamic fair skinned Negro, who looked whiter than most whites, but called himself a Negro came face to face with the injustices of the system.

Although he was a duly elected member of the Congress, he could not enjoy the privileges afforded the other Congressmen. He could not eat in the House's Cafeteria, use the public rest rooms or live in the Washington Hotels. The city of Washington was segregated and the federal government adhered to all the rules. So Adam set about changing things--and he did.

Adam did so well at bucking the system and getting things done from the jump and he was attacked by the establishment from the jump. But Adam took nary a backward step. He lived his philosophy that if he was a Congressman he would have to be treated as a Congressman. Adam refused to allow anyone or anything to type him in any bag.

As the years rolled on and his voters repeatedly sent him back to the Congress, his tenure grew. In following the mandates of the system which said that the longest years of service automatically became the chairman of the House Committees, Adam insisted that the same tenure apply to him and this was when the boys tried to change the rules. But all their schemes fell flat because the plotter from 138th Street refused to allow them to practice their art on him.

Adam's up and downs in private life were those of a virile man. Many of us did not live like Adam but it was only because we could not. Nevertheless, we admired him and some of us even gloried in his pecadillos. Most of us excused his indiscretions by simply saying, "That's Adam."

After he became the Chairman of his House Committee, Adam's Committee passed more pieces of Legislation into law in six years than the whole Congress did since the time of its inception. He was personally acclaimed by three Presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.

His fall from power is a well known chapter and will not be dealt with here other than to say that from Adam the challenge to do for Blacks have been handed down to another young and dynamic young Black by the name of Charles Rangel.

Adam is dead. Adam is gone but I think he shall never be forgotten.

M. P.