King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, JrHoughton Mifflin, 1993 - 476 من الصفحات Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was one of the most brilliant, charismatic, and controversial politicians of this century - and one of the most productive legislators in American history. This vivid and penetrating biography by Wil Haygood, whom Ward Just has praised as "perhaps America's best young reporter", evokes the physical, political, and racial reality of both Powell's life and the civil rights struggle of the twentieth century. The grandson of a slave, Powell utilized his father's pulpit in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church to raise up the poor and disadvantaged during the Great Depression. After marrying a showgirl, starting his own newspaper, and successfully running for city council, he was elected as the first black congressman from Harlem, a seat he held without serious opposition for thirty-odd years. He took his second wife, the jazz pianist Hazel Scott, with him to Washington, where he was a tireless crusader for racial equality, a thorn in the side of his timid colleagues, and an embarrassment to four presidents on the issue of fair employment. Though Powell jumped the Democratic fence in 1956 because of Adlai Stevenson's racial indecisiveness and appointed himself unofficial ambassador to the Bandung conference, he finally assumed real power under Lyndon Johnson. As the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee of the House, the black representative helped the white president push through that mass of laws which Johnson called the War on Poverty. At the same time, Powell's influence was being eroded by his flamboyant private life and by his reckless disregard for congressional proprieties. His pleasurable rambles around the world, compounded by headline-makinglawsuits, cost him his seat in Congress. Though his faithful Harlemites reelected him, he was not reseated until the Supreme Court backed him, in Earl Warren's last decision. Stripped of seniority, Powell toured the country to advocate black power and lolled on his yacht in the Bahamas until he was finally defeated in the 1970 primary election. This energetic narrative paints Powell as a hero to his people and a standard-bearer for social equality. While others may have done more to change our attitudes toward race, Powell did more than any other black leader to change the way we live. Having succored hundreds of thousands, he died in utter loneliness in 1972. |
من داخل الكتاب
النتائج 1-3 من 90
الصفحة 4
... race by simply ig- noring it . Bohemian , waiflike , and very pale , she reduced race to a game , to mere ruse . Racial realities demanded that she , like her father , think on her feet . The moments when father and daughter passed ...
... race by simply ig- noring it . Bohemian , waiflike , and very pale , she reduced race to a game , to mere ruse . Racial realities demanded that she , like her father , think on her feet . The moments when father and daughter passed ...
الصفحة 78
... race and come to realize that mass action is the most powerful force on earth . " Nothing gave him as much delight as tossing barbs at light - skinned blacks like himself . " Prejudices within our own race are doing us more harm than ...
... race and come to realize that mass action is the most powerful force on earth . " Nothing gave him as much delight as tossing barbs at light - skinned blacks like himself . " Prejudices within our own race are doing us more harm than ...
الصفحة 383
... race was shaping up . A number of individuals were competing with John Lindsay , the genteel progressive Republican who had upset the Democratic establishment four years earlier by drawing votes across party lines ; among the districts ...
... race was shaping up . A number of individuals were competing with John Lindsay , the genteel progressive Republican who had upset the Democratic establishment four years earlier by drawing votes across party lines ; among the districts ...
طبعات أخرى - عرض جميع المقتطفات
عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
Abyssinian Baptist Church Adam Clayton Powell Adam Powell administration America arrived Barden became began bill Bimini black Harlem campaign campus candidate Celler Charlie Rangel Chicago civil rights Colgate committee Communist congregation Congress Corrine Huff crowd DeSapio Dewey Dixiecrats Eisenhower election Esther James FEPC Graham Barden Grant Reynolds Guardia Harlem Harlem congressman Harlemites Hazel Scott huge Ibid Isabel John John McCormack Johnson Kennedy knew lawyer leaders legislation liberal looked Lyndon Johnson Manhattan March McCormack minister NAACP Negro never Nixon numbers party People's Voice personal interview playing political politicians Powell Senior Powell's president presidential pulpit quickly Rabb race rally Randolph Rangel recalled Republican Roosevelt Rosenblatt seat segregation Senate Stevenson streets talk Tammany Hall thought ticket told took Truman turned victory vote walked wanted Washington White House Wilkins Williams women York City York Post young Powell