American Experience

Adam Clayton Powell is a film about the rise and fall of the black, charismatic preacher from Harlem who, at the height of his career, was one of the most powerful and controversial politicians in America. A U.S. Representative from 1945 to 1970, Powell exercised incisive leadership, pushing through Congress the critical “bedrock legislation” of President Johnson’s “Great Society” programs. Despite his many accomplishments, a relish for money and fast living eventually led him to political ruin.

Born to affluence, he was the son of Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City. On Sundays, Abyssinian was the center of Harlem’s social life, but Adam Jr.'s favorite perch was outside the Cotton Club, where he could listen to Duke Ellington’s jazz and whistle at beautiful women passing by. Young Adam worried the church deacons and his father, who hoped he would succeed him in the pulpit. To get him out of New York, he was sent off to Colgate University, a Baptist school.

At Colgate, handsome, light-skinned and blond, Adam Jr. passed for white. When discovered, he was forced to leave his white fraternity and await forgiveness from other blacks on campus. Nonetheless, he went on to major in pre-med and social life and excelled in both. The pulpit still held an attraction for the preacher’s son, but he confided to friends that he would not preach “fire and brimstone,” but “economics and jobs”.

Powell returned to New York and instantly made himself a force to be reckoned with. As assistant pastor at Abyssinian, he clothed and fed the poor, and preached that heaven or hell was ours to make on earth. “Keep the faith, baby,” he told his congregation. He exposed corruption and patient abuse at Harlem Hospital. Threatening boycotts, he demanded the telephone and gas companies provide jobs for blacks, and they did. Even the older church deacons were impressed. In 1941, Powell won a landslide election to become the first black ever elected to the New York City Council. Four years later, the preacher’s son went to Congress, the first black member of the House of Representatives ever elected from the Northeast.

In Washington, Powell lashed out at segregation. He ordered black members of his integrated staff to frequent the all-white congressional restrooms and cafeteria and had his hair cut at the white barber shop. He won an appointment to the Committee on Education and Labor and introduced “the Powell Amendment,” which cut off funding to segregated institutions. When Lyndon Johnson became president in 1963, the preacher’s son, now a master politician, was Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Johnson and Powell made a formidable team: Johnson introduced his “Great Society” legislation and Powell rammed it through, more than 50 bills in all, everything from school lunch programs and housing regulations, to labor practices and civil rights. “Brilliant” is how Johnson would describe Powell’s leadership. House Speaker John McCormack told Powell the War On Poverty would have been impossible without him.

But as his power grew, so did Powell’s jet-set appetites. Admirers claimed the congressman had style “like a bank has money”. He lavished favors on his friends and taunted his enemies, calling himself “the first bad nigger in Congress”. When asked about his many junkets to Europe, he answered with wisecracks. In 1966, a House subcommittee, citing ethics violations, voted 27-1 to strip away some of his chairmanship powers. The next year, the 90th Congress refused to seat Adam Clayton Powell. Outraged, his New York constituency threatened to riot. The Supreme Court would return his seat, but the price was high: Powell lost his chairmanship and his seniority. In 1970, the man accustomed to winning by a landslide lost his last bid for office by less than 200 votes.

The story of a remarkable man and his complex legacy, Adam Clayton Powell is produced by Richard Kilberg and Yvonne Smith and directed by Mr. Kilberg.