In his halcyon days as Harlem's Congressman, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. epitomized the rakishly handsome aristocrat who lives and loves with lofty disdain for what Powell called "picayune matters of personal morality." He often overstepped the bounds of good taste, but for most of his 35-year career as the black world's premier preacher, politician and playboy, Powell was a flamboyant symbol of success and the good life that most of his 430,000 largely black constituents could only dream about. He openly flouted the rules set down by whites, drove expensive foreign cars,...
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