The death of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., on Monday evoked powerful memories of the man often characterized as the second most consequential Black politician in U.S. history behind former President Barack Obama.
Rangel, who died at 94, rose to become chair of the all-powerful, tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee in 2006. A longtime member of Ways and Means, he had used his perch as chair of its Oversight subcommittee to battle the Reagan administration’s proposed cuts in social programs.
In addition to his political acumen and unforgettable gravelly voice, Rangel was noted for his sense of humor. Serving as guest comedian at a gala dinner of the National Press Foundation in 2014, the New Yorker whipped out his cellphone and, imitating a gig from Bob Newhart, affected a call to Fidel Castro.
“Fidel? Charlie here,” he said, “You remember that bill I introduced back in 1973 to ease trade restrictions with Cuba? I talked to the president today and he’s going to make it happen. I told you it would work but you just had to be patient!”
Rangel never had any trouble being reelected and served 46 years as the congressman from Harlem. The only true contest he had with the polls was in his initial election in 1970 when he narrowly unseated another genuine legend of Harlem: Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
“Mr. Civil Rights” and “the congressman for Black America” were some of the nicknames for Powell, the magnetic pastor of the powerful Abyssinian Baptist Church who came to Congress in 1944 as one of only two Black House members. He rose to become chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, became a major player in enacting Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda, and was inevitably listed along with Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall as a premier figure in the fight for civil rights.
But Powell also had problems. His trip to Paris with two female staffers of his committee on what he called a “fact-finding trip” did not play well with colleagues, nor did having his wife on his congressional payroll while she was living in Puerto Rico.
Powell’s refusal to deal with these matters as well as his failure to honor a judgment against him for calling a Harlem woman a “bag woman” for corrupt police officers were too much for his colleague. In January 1967, they denied the just-reelected lawmaker his seat in Congress and declared it vacant. Powell handily won the special election for the vacant seat and, after his reelection in 1968, was finally seated.
The Supreme Court eventually ruled 8-1 that no one could be denied a seat in Congress if he or she met the constitutional requirements of minimum age (25), resided in the state from which he or she was elected, and had a certificate of election.
A Bronze Star winner for heroism in the Korean War and graduate of St. John’s University Law School, state Assemblyman Rangel was clearly the most formidable of four primary opponents to Powell. Rangel disagreed with the congressman on virtually nothing — more federal funds for education and housing, and opposition to the Vietnam War.
But Rangel’s main argument was that Powell was doing little in office and, in fact, missed votes on 14 bills in 1969, including bills dealing with student loans, increasing Social Security benefits, and special milk programs for children.
Rangel’s brochures highlighted the absences and urged voters to write Powell and ask him to retire.
“On the issues, Powell could match him,” wrote Powell’s biographer Charles Hamilton, “But on the matter of physical energy, there was no contest: Rangel had him.”
The challenger also secured some powerful endorsements. Baseball greats Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, bandleader Lionel Hampton (a Republican), Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, Mayor John Lindsay, and Rep. Shirley Chisholm all weighed in for Rangel.
On June 23, 1970, Rangel topped the five-candidate field and edged out Powell by 150 votes. Powell refused to concede and charged his opponent with fraud. Less than two years later, he died at 63.
But Charlie Rangel’s history with the Powell family continued. No modest man, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell had two sons both named for him. Adam III became a broadcast journalist and is now head of the University of Southern California’s Cybersecurity Initiative. Adam IV followed in his father’s footsteps and was elected to the New York State Assembly.
In 1994, Adam, IV decided to challenge Rangel for the seat once held by his father. Rangel won overwhelmingly. When Rangel retired in 2016, Adam IV ran again and this time lost the primary to state Sen. Adriano Espaillat.
When I asked Rangel about the Powell brothers during the 2012 Democratic National Convention, he shook his head and growled: “All the brains in that family went in one direction!”
“Charlie always admired his predecessor, my father, and called me repeatedly in recent years to criticize how my father was depicted in the TV series ‘Godfather of Harlem,'” Adam III told Newsmax. “He said it was a scandal and wanted to hold a news conference to blast the show.”
Adam III added that Rangel “wanted me to succeed him in Congress, saying he would endorse me if I ran.” But he wasn’t interested.
“Charlie saw me on Capitol Hill one day and said, ‘Let’s go have some fun.’ He took me into a closed markup session of the House Ways and Means Committee, of which he was then chair. As his colleagues, seeing a stranger enter the meeting, scrambled to cover up their notes, Charlie announced loudly, ‘It’s OK! He’s Adam’s kid!'”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
