Adam Clay Powell Research Paper

Congressman Gary Franks
November 11, 2013
Adam Clayton Powell The life of the former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, resembles everything that I want to be as a potential elected official. By examining Congressman Powell’s life, I have started to realize that he was a true representative of the citizens he was voted in by. The people that lived in his community truly believed in his purpose, and he was a champion for their interests by proving his dedication. Time after time throughout his entire life he showed that he was a major force in providing for the African-American community, and he his leadership proved that. His dedication was first revealed after the Great Depression began in 1929. It was then that that young Powell ran a soup kitchen serving the hard hit population in Harlem. There, he earned a reputation for tremendous compassion. It was said, that Powell also gave his own shoes to a man unable to find the right size in the church shoe bin that he attended. Following a brief stint at the City College of New York, Powell entered Colgate University in upstate New York in 1930. His plan
He never missed an opportunity to back equal employment opportunities for Blacks, and repeatedly introduced legislation to eliminate discrimination in federal agencies and by federal contractors. In 1956, impatient with the influence of the southern segregationists who made up a significant wing of the Democratic party, Powell shocked his fellow Democrats by supporting Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the President’s successful bid for reelection. He showed through character by sticking to who he believed in and supporting what he thought was right. That’s a true representative that I want to resemble. His stance cause him to make a lot of enemies in Congress, and I believe that caused him to have not much support in the