Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908-1972), American congressman and minister, one of the most vocal and flamboyant black campaigners for civil rights.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Harlem, New York, where his father was the minister of Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of the largest congregations in the nation. After a poor academic performance at City College of New York, Powell attended Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Light-skinned enough to pass as white, he did so. Upon learning that Powell was black, both the white students among whom Powell had tried to live and the black students whose ethnicity he had rejected were angered. 

After graduation, Powell helped in his father's church and briefly attended Union Theological Seminary. He went on to earn a master's degree in religious education from Columbia University and continued to assist his father until 1937, when Adam Sr. retired and Adam Jr. became pastor of Abyssinian. During this time, Powell maintained a high-profile lifestyle noted for its luxury and associations with the rich and famous.

Asked by the New York Post to comment on the Harlem Riot of 1935, he obliged with a scathing attack on discrimination and police brutality. These articles led to a regular "Soap Box" column in the New York Amsterdam News and later the People's Voice, which Powell cofounded and published from 1942 to 1946. He also used the pulpit to spur political action. Through marches to city hall and Harlem Hospital, he protested discrimination in hiring and services. He also led the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaign against New York's stores; this campaign proved successful in breaking hiring barriers. His pressure on utility companies and a highly effective strike against New York City buses resulted in quotas for the hiring of black employees.

In 1941 Powell won a city council seat as an independent. He continued to challenge discrimination, particularly in New York's public schools, occasionally irritating even reformist mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. In 1943 a new congressional district was established in Harlem that would almost certainly produce the state's first black congressperson. Powell undertook an ambitious campaign for the seat, winning the support of Democrats (on whose ticket he ran), Republicans, and Communists. In 1945 he became the second of two black Congress members.

In his first year, Powell denounced First Lady Bess Truman for her affiliation with the Daughters of the American Revolution, which then had racially discriminatory policies. President Harry S. Truman was outraged, and Powell fell out of favor with the White House. Relegated to a marginal role in legislation, Powell pressed his campaign where he could, personally demanding to be served by discriminatory Washington businesses and campaigning to have black journalists admitted to the press galleries. Powell ended segregation in congressional service facilities and challenged congresspersons who used the word "nigger" on the House floor. He also repeatedly tried to pass what became known as the Powell Amendment, which would have denied funding to institutions that practiced racial discrimination.

In the 1956 presidential election, Powell infuriated his party by supporting Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he saw as mildly progressive on civil rights. However, in 1960 Powell campaigned ardently for Democrat John F. Kennedy, bringing with him many of the black votes that had gone to Eisenhower in 1956. Kennedy's narrow victory coincided with Powell's rise to the position of chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor-the first time an African American chaired such a powerful committee. Powell was instrumental in passing much of the progressive legislation enacted in the 1960s, including increases to the minimum wage, protection of civil rights, and the creation of Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start. A version of the Powell Amendment was finally codified in the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

At the same time that Powell's power was growing, his support was being drained by accusations and scandals. The most serious of these emerged in the early 1950s, when several of Powell's aides were convicted of income tax evasion and rumors circulated that they had also given him kickbacks from their salary. Powell was indicted for tax evasion in 1958, but his trial resulted in a hung jury and the Department of Justice declined to retry him. In 1960 Powell was again embroiled when he accused a constituent of being a "bag woman," someone who transported payoffs to police from illegal gambling rackets. The constituent sued for libel and won a large judgment against Powell, who refused to honor the court's decision and its warrants. The case dragged on for years before Powell agreed to settle. Powell also received negative publicity for his many absences from Congress and for his personal extravagances.

In 1966 a House committee found that Powell had improperly placed his wife on his committee's payroll and vacationed at committee expense in Europe and the Bahamas. Powell maintained he was doing neither more nor less than his colleagues and was being held to a racist double-standard. In a vote following the November 1966 elections, the House denied to seat Powell. He challenged the vote, and in 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court held that although Congress could expel a member, it could not deny to seat someone duly elected. Powell was finally seated after an absence of two years, but without his seniority and with his pay docked to pay for financial abuses. In 1970 Charles Rangel emerged from a field of several Democratic challengers to defeat him.