Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-06-15

Washington hotel to a Negro
fraternity that had been denied
accommodations.
A Man Of Porodoxes
Like many irregulars in politics,
Mr.. Powell is a man Of complex
paradoxes.
He is a Baptist minister. like
his father, but he can enjoy-and
tell-an off-color story, and he
can drop a damn with the in
f1exion of a man not unacquainted
with the oath. while his dog
cared copy of the Jefferson Bible
rests in his pocket.
In the early days of his tenure,
he flirted with the distant left of
the political spectrum, standing
with the late Vito Marcantonio
in voting against the Marshall
Plan and extension of the post
war draft. Yet he has been an
effective anti-Communist. win
ming a Veterans of Foreign Wars
post award for his fight against
communism. In 1855, he ignored
State Department protests and
paid his own way to the confer
ence of 80 ASian-African nations
at Banding, Indonesia, where he
looked the Red propagandists in
the eye and said fatty: "Racism
is ON the way out in the United
States" He then proceeded to
back up the statement with facts,
figures, dates and names. The
Reds fumed and Snorted, but they
didn't attempt a reply.
Mr.. Powell has alternately &C
cused President Eisenhower of a
studied reluctance to act in civil
rights matters and praised him as
the author of a new Emancipa-
ton Proclamation"
AS a Baptist minister. the de-
livery of his sermons often is
emotional, but more often their
content sounds like a Unitarian
lecture.
Powell as q NeedIer
He has championed the Mau
Maus of Kenya, but has attacked
his Negro colleague, Representa-
tive William Dawson of Chicago.
Only last week he had this to
say of the racial situation North
and South: I'VE are facing in
creasing honesty in the South
and increasing hypocrisy in the
North"-thus coming very close
to what has been all along the
contention of last-ditch South
ernerS.
Mr.. Powells base of operations
is his church and its huge con-
gregation, which at last count
numbered 1882 members. The
membership, in effect, comprises
a ready-made machine of 1882
willing workers anxious to con-
vince the American Negro that
Mr.. Powell is their greatest bene-
factor since Abraham Lincoln.
His message to them generally
is. blessed are the poor-eSpeci-
ally if they have been made poor
by the white man"
Invariably. when Mr.. Powell
makes the headlines. the race is
sue is his vehicle-except recently,
when his income tax troubles have
brought him attention,
In the days when the District
had many more segregated facili-
ties than at present, he had the
habit of offering amendments tc
bills for District of Columbia APP
preparations that would deny
funds to any agency which prac-
ticed segregation the District
Fire Department. for instance
This same thing has been blamed
though Mr.. Powell denies it
for twice killing Federal aid fol-
school construction.
Armed Forces Fight
For years. he fought segrega'
ton in the armed forces, Ayerag'
ing perhaps as many as two o.
three kilograms a month to TIT
President on the matter. They
we're pungent, accusing. anC
sometimes bitter-and almost al
ways released to the press to in
sure an answer.
Mr.. Powell views himself no
only as the Congressman for tht
$4,000 residents of Harlem, bu
also for the 8 million Negroes il
the South, who, he says, have n,
representation ecause the,
can't vote "
Thus, Mr.. Powell has success
fully earned the reputation o
having done more to dramatic
the cause Of civil rights than an,
man in our time. A by-produc
of these efforts. of course, ha
been an increase in the racis