Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma
Author(s): Charles V. Hamilton (Author)
Publisher: Cooper Square Press
Publication Date: December 24, 2001
Language: English
Print length: 576 pages
ISBN-10: 0815411847
ISBN-13: 9780815411840
Book Description
In this authoritative biography of the congressman and civil rights activist Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Prof. Hamilton reassesses the man’s unique and complex place in American history. As the senior pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, Powell led protests against segregation and discrimination during the Great Depression. Through persistent effort and skillful politicking, Powell was elected to Congress in 1944 and continued his efforts on behalf of blacks during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Following Kennedy’s election, Powell gained the chairmanship of the House Committee on Education and Labor, but the remaining years of his life were filled with accusations, family problems, and the loss of his supporters. Drawing on extensive interviews and untapped archival material, Hamilton enriches the reader’s understanding of Powell and the turbulent era in which he lived.
Editorial Reviews
Review
A balanced and dynamic portrait of the controversial mid-century congressman from Harlem. ― Publishers Weekly
Blending scholarship and ironic detachment, an admirably balanced treatment of a politician who provoked anything but objectivity during his Marion Barry-like career. ―
Kirkus Reviews
Captures the full range of an exciting man. ―
The New York Times
Powell was a seminal figure, the first modern rogue civil rights leader, a maddening amalgam of morality and amorality, brilliance, and corruption. It is Hamilton’s contention that Powell is a perfect lens through which to view the gap between America’s human rights canon and its racial reality…. Hamilton has combed the congressman’s papers and interviewed just about everyone still alive who was close to him. ―
New Republic
Hamilton gives the reader a chance to live in Powells New York and , really. it would be anybody’s kind of town. ―
Black Issues Book Review
About the Author
A professor at Columbia, Charles V. Hamilton’s other books include The Bench and the Ballot and (with Stokley Carmichael) Black Power.
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