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Civil Rights Essay

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Submitted By agivens
Words 1094
Pages 5
HIS 221
Amy Lively
11/26/12
Keeping the Faith with Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was the first African American man to serve on the New York City Council in 1941. He also won another election in 1945 to the U.S. House of Representatives. Powell built a strong community in Harlem through his campaigns for jobs and housing for the poor, abolishing poll tax, and making lynching a federal crime. During his time in office he began a long fight against racial segregation, this being the turning point of his courageous career.
On November 29, 1908 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was born to Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Mattie Fletcher Schaffer as their second child but only son. His father served as a pastor in Philadelphia and became the head pastor at a Baptist church in New Haven. In 1908, he led the Abyssinian Baptist Church in the city of Harlem, New York. After some time in his pastoral position, Powell Sr. expanded the congregation to 10,000 people during the Great Depression. Growing up Adam C. Powell Jr. lived a fairly wealthy life. He attended Townsend Harris High School in New York. Then he went on to study at the City College of New York, and officially started his collegiate career at Colgate University. There were four other African-American students who also attended Colgate. Many times Powell passed for white, taking advantage of his appearance to escape racial attacks. The other black students were disappointed to discover what he had done (Hopwood, 2012). In 1933, Powell married Isabel Washington, a singer. Powell adopted her son Preston, from her first marriage. After their divorce, he then married again in 1945 to singer Hazel Scott. They had a son, Adam Clayton Powell III. Powell divorced once more, and in 1960 he married Yvette Flores Diago from Puerto Rico. They had a son, whom he also named

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