• U.S.

New York: Adam’s Rise

2 minute read
TIME

If his fellow Congressmen were granted secret ballots, Harlem’s handsome Adam Clayton Powell would doubtless be voted the most talkative, least effective member of the House of Representatives. Nor does his gaping absence record (he missed 51% of roll calls in 1960) make congressional hearts grow fonder. Negro Democrat Powell campaigned for Republican Dwight Eisenhower in” 1956, campaigned for Democrat Jack Kennedy in 1960. He is under indictment for filing a fraudulent income-tax return. But because his Harlem constituents, spellbound by years of racist oratory, have sent him to Congress for nine uninterrupted terms. Congressman Powell last week inherited the chairmanship of the powerful House Committee on Education and Labor.

To celebrate the event, the Kennedy Administration joined New York’s political elite in paying lavish tribute. The occasion was a $12.50-a-plate testimonial dinner sponsored by a “Committee of One Thousand” (honorary chairman: Kennedy’s protocol chief, Angier Biddle Duke) and the congregation of the Rev. Dr.

Powell’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. On hand to lead the obeisances were Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Abraham Ribicoff and Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg, eleven Congressmen, A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Walter Reuther’s brother Roy.

New York’s Mayor Robert Wagner, preoccupied with problems of his own (see following story), did not attend. But Wagner’s political archenemy, Carmine De Sapio, was present, and Powell rewarded him with an affectionate pat. Best of all, there was a message from President Kennedy himself: “Adam and I have worked together and campaigned together since we entered Congress in 1947.* Adam— has had many careers, but none more challenging than his new role as chairman of the House Labor and Education Committee.”

In his speech, Adam Powell was graciously modest. “For years I have been the demagogue, the racist, the flamboyant Mr. Powell, presenting the Powell amendment to the aid-to-education bill,” said he. But in the end, even the Eisenhower Administration “agreed with my amendment.” The 1,600 diners loved it, but the New York Times demurred: “To make a hero out of Adam Clayton Powell … is to reduce politics to the lowest common denominator, an action entirely unworthy of the high principles and the inspiring projects of the Kennedy Administration.”

*Powell entered Congress in 1945.

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