IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 26 

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States Postal Service 

should issue a postage stamp commemorating Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 10, 2007 

Mr. RANGEL submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States 

Postal Service should issue a postage stamp commemorating Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 

Whereas Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was a Baptist minister, 

a crusader for civil rights, and one of the most effective 

legislators in the history of the United States Congress; 

Whereas Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was born on November 

29, 1908, in New Haven, Connecticut, and was raised in 

the section of New York City known as Harlem, where 

his father was pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 

which had one of the largest congregations in the Nation; 

Whereas Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in 1930 and began his crusade for civil rights by leading a protest against Harlem 


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•HCON 26 IH 

Hospital for firing 5 African-American doctors because of 

their race; 

Whereas Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., earned a master’s degree 

in religious education from Columbia University in 1931 

and, after his father’s retirement in 1937, became pastor 

of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, in which capacity 

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., used the pulpit to spur political action; 

Whereas in 1941 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was elected to 

the New York City Council and began publishing and editing a weekly newspaper called ‘‘The People’s Voice’’; 

Whereas Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was a member of the 

New York State Office of Price Administration from 

1942 to 1944 and the Manhattan Civilian Defense from 

1942 to 1945; 

Whereas Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was elected to the United 

States House of Representatives in 1944, representing 

the newly created 22d Congressional District of New 

York, which later became the 18th Congressional District 

of New York; 

Whereas Congressman Powell served on the Committee on 

Indian Affairs and the Committee on Invalid Pensions 

and Labor during his first term, the Committee on Education and Labor beginning in 1947, and the Committee 

on Interior and Insular Affairs from 1955 to 1961; 

Whereas Congressman Powell challenged the informal rules 

forbidding Black Members from using the facilities of the 

Capitol that were reserved exclusively for Members and 

admonished the notorious segregationist, John E. Rankin 

of Mississippi, for voicing racist epithets against Blacks 

on the floor of the House of Representatives; 


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Whereas Congressman Powell introduced several bills to outlaw lynching and poll taxes, as well as discrimination in 

housing, employment, transportation, and the armed 

forces; 

Whereas Congressman Powell attempted to attach an amendment, which would have denied Federal funding to institutions that practiced discrimination, to so many bills 

that it became known as the ‘‘Powell Amendment’’; 

Whereas Congressman Powell campaigned ardently for 

Democratic Presidential nominee John F. Kennedy, garnering enough votes from African-Americans to ensure 

Kennedy’s narrow victory in 1960; 

Whereas Congressman Powell became the first African-American to chair the powerful Committee on Education and 

Labor in 1961; 

Whereas Chairman Powell was instrumental in passing bills 

that increased the minimum wage, provided education 

and training for the deaf, established standards for wages 

and hours of work, and authorized the medicare, medicaid, Head Start, school lunch, vocational training, and 

student loan programs; 

Whereas Chairman Powell played a decisive role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as part of which 

the ‘‘Powell Amendment’’ was finally enacted; 

Whereas Congressman Powell came under attack from longtime enemies and committee members and was stripped 

of his chairmanship by the Democratic Caucus of the 

House of Representatives on January 9, 1967, and was 

later excluded from the 90th Congress by a vote of 307 

to 116 on March 1, 1967; 


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Whereas Congressman Powell won a special election on April 

11, 1967, to fill his seat during this exclusion, but did 

not return to Congress until 1969, when the Supreme 

Court ruled that the House of Representatives had acted 

unconstitutionally; 

Whereas Congressman Powell returned to Congress, but was 

stripped of his 22 years of seniority; 

Whereas Congressman Powell unsuccessfully sought renomination in the June 1970 primary, retired as pastor of the 

Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1971, and died in Miami, 

Florida, on April 4, 1972; and 

Whereas Congressman Powell remains one of the greatest 

civil rights advocates in the history of the United States: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that— 

3 (1) the United States Postal Service should 

4 issue a postage stamp commemorating Congressman 

5 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.; and 

6 (2) the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee 

7 should recommend to the Postmaster General that 

8 such a stamp be issued. 

Æ 


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