•HCON 45 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 polit-
ical action; 
Whereas, in 1941, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was elected to 
the New York City Council and began publishing and ed-
iting 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 Edu-
cation 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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•HCON 45 IH 
Whereas Congressman Powell introduced several bills to out-
law lynching and poll taxes, as well as discrimination in 
housing, employment, transportation, and the Armed 
Forces; 
Whereas Congressman Powell attempted to attach an amend-
ment, which would have denied Federal funding to insti-
tutions 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, gar-
nering enough votes from African-Americans to ensure 
Kennedy’s narrow victory in 1960; 
Whereas Congressman Powell became the first African-Amer-
ican 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, Med-
icaid, Head Start, school lunch, vocational training, and 
student loan programs; 
Whereas Chairman Powell played a decisive role in the pas-
sage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as part of which 
the ‘‘Powell Amendment’’ was finally enacted; 
Whereas Congressman Powell came under attack from long- 
time 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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•HCON 45 IH 
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 renomi-
nation 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 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that— 
(1) the United States Postal Service should 
issue a postage stamp commemorating Congressman 
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.; and 
(2) the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee 
should recommend to the Postmaster General that 
such a stamp be issued. 
Æ 
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