Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

ABOUT ADAM CLAYTON POWELL JR.

American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York City, in the US House of Representatives from 1945 to 1971. He was the first person from New York of African American descent to be elected to Congress.

He graduated from Columbia University with a religious education degree in 1931.

He sued the House of Representatives and won in the Supreme Court in 1969 after the House refused to seat him due to corruption charges.

His father, Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., was a community activist and pastor.

He supported Dwight D. Eisenhower for re-election.