Adam Clayton Powell (May 5, 1865 – June 12, 1953) was an American pastor who developed the

Abyssinian Baptist Church The Abyssinian Baptist Church is a Baptist megachurch located at 132 West 138th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is affiliated with the National Bapt ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, as the largest Protestant congregation in the country, with 10,000 members. He was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

community activist, author, and the father of

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was t ...

Born into poverty in southwestern Virginia, Powell worked to put himself through school and

Wayland Seminary Wayland Seminary was the Washington, D.C., school of the National Theological Institute. The institute was established beginning in 1865 by the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS). At first designed primarily for providing education an ...

, where he was ordained in 1892. After serving in churches in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, Powell was called as pastor to Abyssinian Baptist, where he served from 1908 to 1936. During the Great Migration of Black people out of the rural South, thousands of Black people moved to New York and

became the center of African American life in the city. During his tenure, Powell supervised the purchase of land, fundraising, and the construction of a much larger church and facilities. He was a founder of the

National Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

, active in the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

and several fraternal organizations, and served as trustee of several

historically black colleges Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

and schools.

Background

Adam Clayton Powell was born near Martin's Mill "at the conflux of Maggotty and Soak Creeks,"Powell, A. Clayton Sr., ''Against the Tide: An Autobiography'' (New York: Richard B. Smith, 1938) in

Franklin County, Virginia Franklin County is a county located in the Blue Ridge foothills of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,477. Its county seat is Rocky Mount. Franklin County is part of the Roanoke metro ...

. This was in the

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

, above the

Fall Line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is noticeable especially the place rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the ...

of the

Roanoke River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the ...

. His mother Sally Dunning (1842–1848–?), a free woman of color, named her first son after her older brother Adam Dunning. He headed the family as a farmer.1860 United States Census, Franklin County, VA, "Sallie Dunning"
Free Population Schedule, p. 109. Sallie Dunning was classified as a free

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

of eighteen on the 1860 census. In 1860 Sally was living with her mother Mildred, aunt Mary, and large family, including her grandmother Hannah; all the family were free

mulattoes ( , ) is a racial classification that refers to people of mixed African and European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the word is (). The use of this term began in the United States shortly ...

.1860 US Census, Franklin County, North Eastern Division
Virginia. Note: Sally Dunning was living with her mother Mildred, grandmother Hannah, aunt Mary, older brothers Adam and John, younger brother George, and sisters Jane, Lucetta and Mildred, all free mulattoes. Given the three generations of free women of color, that line was likely free since the colonial period. Powell wrote in his autobiography that his mother never told him who his father was. He described her mother, Mildred Dunning (later listed as Malinda Dunnon, in the 1880 census1880 US Census, "Anthony Powell" and family, Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, West Virginia), as "mostly Indian." Mildred was still living with her daughter and family past 1880, so he knew her well. Powell had visible European-American ancestry, in features, light skin, and blue eyes. Two years after Adam's birth, in 1867 his mother Sally married Anthony Bush (b. abt. 1845-d. 1937), a mulatto

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

(former slave). In the 1870 census, he used the surname Dunning, as did his and Sally's children. J. Daniel Pezzoni, a preservation consultant, noted in 1995 there was a local tradition linking Powell's family to Llewellyn Powell, a white planter, who had property 10 miles away at Hale's Ford, but there was no documentary evidence for this.J. Daniel Pezzoni, "Hook-Powell-Moorman Farm": Historic Nomination Form
, United States Department of the Interior, 1995.

Wil Haygood Wil Haygood (born September 19, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio) is an American journalist and author who is known for his 2008 article "A Butler Well Served by this Election" in ''The Washington Post'' about Eugene Allen, which served as the basis for th ...

, a 1993 biographer of

, mistakenly wrote that Sally Dunning was held as a

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

by white farmer Llewellyn Powell at the time of her son Adam's birth. He asserted Powell was the father of Adam.Wil Haygood, ''King of the Cats: The Life and Times of

'' (2006) Pezzoni noted Sally was a free woman of color, as were her mother and grandmother, proved by the 1860 census, which documented the three generations of the Dunning family. Both Sally's mother and grandmother were free; by Virginia's principle of ''

partus sequitur ventrem ''Partus sequitur ventrem'' (; also ''partus'') was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies in the Americas which defined the legal status of children born there; the doctrine mandated that children ...

'' in slave law, all of their children were also born free. ''The Encyclopaedia of African American History'' (2006) claims that Powell's father was Llewellyn Powell, and that he was of German descent. (Note: Both Llewellyn and Powell are names associated primarily with Wales and England rather than Germany.) By 1880, the Dunning family had moved to Cabin Creek,

Kanawha County, West Virginia Kanawha County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 180,745, making it West Virginia's most populous county. The county seat is Charleston, which is also the state capital and most ...

, and taken new names. Anthony, his wife and children took the surname Powell. According to biographer Charles V. Hamilton, Anthony Bush "decided to take the name Powell as a new identity." Sally's mother Mildred Dunning was listed as Malinda Dunnon in 1880, apparently changing her name, too, for their new lives in West Virginia. There was a growing African-American community in the Kanawha Valley, attracted to jobs in mills and in coal production. In 1880 Anthony Powell worked at the dam; Adam Powell at age 15 worked hauling water at the mines, and Malinda Dunnon worked as a weaver. Anthony reared Adam as his son, and he and Sally had several children together. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. identified as black in the South and in his life. Later in life he easily passed as white for convenience when traveling by train in the South; he used it to gain better accommodations in the segregated railroad cars.

Education

Powell worked through college and graduated in 1892 from

, a

historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

located in Washington, DC. (It was the predecessor school of

Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Richmond, Virginia. History The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Rich ...

). He attended

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

(1895–1896) and earned a D.D. at

(1904). He was later made an honorary member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the ...

fraternity.

Marriage and family

On 30 June 1889, Powell married Mattie Shaffer (née Mattie Buster) of Pratt, West Virginia. She was the daughter of Samuel Buster and his wife Eliza (née Wilson), both mixed-race farm laborers. (Eliza changed her and her daughter's surname to Shaffer after divorcing Buster.)Lawrence Rushing, "The Racial Identity of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.: A Case Study in Racial Ambiguity and Identity"
''Afro-Americans in New York Life and History,'' 2010, at The Free Library, accessed 17 October 2011 The Powells had two children: Blanche F. Powell (b. 1898; d. 1926) and

(b. 1908; d. 1972). Before 1920, Blanche married Clarence D. King, who had migrated to New York from Virginia, and the young couple lived with her parents for a time in the city. Mattie Powell died on April 22, 1945. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. married his second wife, Inez Cottrell, on February 5, 1946. They lived on Sugar Hill in West Harlem at

The Garrison Apartments, 435 Convent Avenue 435 Convent Avenue is a six-story granite, brick, and terra cotta Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building called The Garrison Apartments, Inc. It stands at the southeast corner of Convent Avenue and West 149th Street on Sugar Hill, Man ...

, Apartment 3.

Career

Powell was ordained a Baptist minister in 1892; he served at churches in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and

, between 1892 and 1908.Matcher (1915), ''Who's Who'', p. 222 From 1908 until 1936, Powell served as pastor of the century-old

, whose congregation had moved north and was located in

, New York. Under his leadership, in 1920 the congregation acquired a large lot and built a substantial church and community center at a cost of $334,000. With the increase in the black population to New York during the twentieth century's Great Migration, Powell ultimately attracted a membership of 10,000 at Abyssinian, the largest Protestant membership in the country. Powell had widespread influence in the community.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the s ...

, the German theologian and pastor, attended Abyssinian Baptist for six months while studying in New York at

Union Theological Seminary Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (shortened to UTS or Union) is a Private college, private ecumenical liberal Christian seminary in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, affiliated with Columbia University since 1928. Presently, Co ...

before World War II. He was greatly influenced by the preaching, social work and the Black spiritual music of the congregation. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. has been credited with teaching Bonhoeffer about love of enemies, resisting systems of injustice, Christ's presence with the poor, and the doctrine of " cheap grace". Powell was active in a variety of educational institutions and community organizations; he was among the founders of the

; a trustee of Virginia Union University, Downington Industrial and Agricultural School in Pennsylvania, which operated until 1993; the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC; and the White Rose Industrial Home in New York, all

and schools. He was a member of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

, Republican Party, and fraternal organizations, including the Masons,

Odd Fellows Odd Fellows (or Oddfellows when referencing the Grand United Order of Oddfellows or some British-based fraternities; also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship) is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in 18th-cen ...

and

Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias is a Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias was the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an Act of Co ...

. Powell's son,

, succeeded his father as pastor at the church in 1937 after working with him for several years as an assistant.

Burial

Powell is buried at

Flushing Cemetery Flushing Cemetery is a cemetery in Flushing in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. History Flushing Cemetery has several predecessors. In 1789 (64 years before the cemetery was founded), George Washington had crossed the East Ri ...

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places Netherlands * Flushing, Netherlands, an English name for the city of Vlissingen, Netherlands United Kingdom * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in Cornwall, England * The Flushing, a building in Suffolk, England ...

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, New York.

Works

Powell, A. Clayton Sr., ''Against the Tide: An Autobiography''
(New York: Richard B. Smith, 1938)

Pamphlets

* "Some Rights Not Denied the Negro" * "The Significance of the Hour" * "A Plea for Strong Manhood" * "A Three-Fold Cord"

References

Sources

* *
Powell, A. Clayton Sr., ''Against the Tide: An Autobiography''
(New York: Richard B. Smith, 1938)
Rushing, Lawrence, "The Racial Identity of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.: A Case Study in Racial Ambivalence and Redefinition"
''Afro-Americans in New York Life and History'', 1 January 2010 * Finkelman, Paul (editor). ''Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century''. * Hamilton, Charles V. ''Adam Clayton Powell Jr.: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma,'' New York: Atheneum, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991
Haygood, Wil. ''King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.''
1993; reprint, HarperCollins, 2006 *
Mather, Frank Lincoln. ''Who's Who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent''
Vol. 1, Chicago: Memento Edition, 1915, p. 222
Pezzoni, J. Daniel. "Hook-Powell-Moorman Farm": Historic Nomination Form
US Department of the Interior, 1995
Powell, A. Clayton Sr., ''Against the Tide: An Autobiography''
(New York: Richard B. Smith, 1938) * Yenser, Thomas (editor), ''Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America'', Who's Who in Colored America, Brooklyn, New York, 1930–1931–1932 (Third Edition) * The story of the Powell family is retold in the 1949 radio drama
Father to Son
, a presentation from ''

Destination Freedom ''Destination Freedom'' was a series of weekly radio programs that was produced by WMAQ in Chicago. The first set ran from 1948 to 1950 and it presented the biographical histories of prominent African Americans such as George Washington Carver ...

'', written by

Richard Durham Richard Isadore Durham (September 6, 1917 – April 27, 1984) was an African-American writer and radio producer.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Adam Clayton Sr. 1865 births 1953 deaths African-American Baptist ministers National Baptist Convention, USA ministers African-American writers American writers Burials at Flushing Cemetery People from Franklin County, Virginia Powell family (New York) Yale Divinity School alumni People from Harlem Pennsylvania Republicans Connecticut Republicans New York (state) Republicans Baptists from Virginia Baptists from New York (state) People from Cabin Creek, West Virginia Baptists from West Virginia Religious leaders from West Virginia Virginia Union University alumni