CR624
January 1967
ADAM CLAYTON POWELL
Keep The Faith, Baby album
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was the first African American to be elected to Congress from New York, as well as the first from any state in the Northeast. Re-elected for nearly three decades, Powell became a powerful national politician of the Democratic Party, and served as a national spokesman on civil rights and social issues. He also urged United States presidents to support emerging nations in Africa and Asia as they gained independence after colonialism.
In 1961, after 16 years in the House, Powell became chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, the most powerful position held by an African American in Congress. As chairman, he supported the passage of important social and civil rights legislation under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Following allegations of corruption, in 1967 Powell was excluded from his seat by Democratic Representatives-elect of the 90th United States Congress, but he was re-elected and regained the seat in the 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in Powell v. McCormack. He lost his seat in 1970 to Charles Rangel and retired from electoral politics.
In January 1967 legendary civil rights leader and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., issued this recording as a retort to his House colleagues, who stripped him of his committee chairmanship that month following a series of legal problems. The former preacher used call-and-response oratory and a full choir to take jibes at the House and exhort African-American voters to guard their political and economic freedom closely: “The white man respects only two things, your vote and your dollar.”
In 1961, after 16 years in the House, Powell became chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, the most powerful position held by an African American in Congress. As chairman, he supported the passage of important social and civil rights legislation under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Following allegations of corruption, in 1967 Powell was excluded from his seat by Democratic Representatives-elect of the 90th United States Congress, but he was re-elected and regained the seat in the 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in Powell v. McCormack. He lost his seat in 1970 to Charles Rangel and retired from electoral politics.
In January 1967 legendary civil rights leader and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., issued this recording as a retort to his House colleagues, who stripped him of his committee chairmanship that month following a series of legal problems. The former preacher used call-and-response oratory and a full choir to take jibes at the House and exhort African-American voters to guard their political and economic freedom closely: “The white man respects only two things, your vote and your dollar.”
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