Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 61, Number 114, Decatur, Adams County, 14 May 1963 — Page 8

PAGE EIGHT

Powell Indifferent To Much Criticism

(EDITOR’S NOTE' One of questions asked most frequently by visitors to Washington is. “What makes ‘Congressman X' the kind of a man he is?” The answer is seldom simple. But never is it more complicated then in the case of Adams Clayton Powell. The following dispatch, second in a series, tells how Powell became a Negro leader and how is has affected his life.) By LOVIS CASSELS And ARNOLD SAWISLAK United Press International WASHINGTON (UPU — When Adam Clayton Powell was 12 years old, his family moved to Harlem, where his father was to serve for many years as a Baptist minister. “The first night we were there." Powell recalled recently, "my mother sent me to the drug store. A gang of white boys waylaid me on the street, and beat me up. “The next night. I was sent on another errand, and I took a different route. This time a gang of Negro bovs beat me up. "The third night the white boys grabbed me again, and asked me, 'Boy, what color are you?’ “I was scared and didn’t know what to say so I just told them the truth. ‘I don’t know what I am,’ I said. ‘l’m mixed.’ So they beat me up again for being mixed.” Powell laughed uproariously as he told this anecdote to UPI reporters in his congressional office. But there was a look in his eyes which suggested the 12-year-old boy had not found the incident so amusing. Unsure of Ancestry Although Powell has become the American Negro’s best-known and most controversial spokesman in Congress, he is not at all sure hpw much Negro blood is actually in his veins, and any uninstructed visitor would almost certainly take him for a white man. At 54 he is a tall, slim-waisted, strikingly handsome man with long wavy hair, a neatly-trimmed moustache, and a complexion which ranges from the shade of coffee with double cream to that of weathered brass, depending upon how much time he has been spending in the sun outside his beach home in Puerto Rico. On his desk is a family photograph showing his father, mother and sister. All of them look white. “I couldn’t prove that I have any Negro blood,” Powell said in reply to a direct question about his ancestry Then he added: “I am a Negro by choice.” In that sentence lies part of the explanation of Powell’s strong hold on the affections of the Harlem constituents who have elected him to Congress 10 times despite a succession of scandals and accusations involving income tax returns, trips at government expense, relatives on the federal payroll and other matters. Powell is a man who could pass

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I for white—who, in fact, was taken I for white in college—but who has I deliberately chosen to cast his lot : ith the Negro race. I The decision may have cost him i something in terms of private 1 snubs or embarrassments. But it i has been professionally and polii tically rewarding. Father Founds Church H Powell was born in New Haven. I Cann,Nov. 29. 1908. But he has spent most of his life in New York City, where his father, the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., built the Abyssinian Baptist Church into one of the largest Protestant congregations in America 'about 10.000 members). First located in downtown Manhattan, the church was transplanted to Harlem when Adam Jr., was 12. Young Powell grew up in comI sortable circumstances, attended good schools, was graduated from Colgate University with an ' A.B. dd&ree and went on to get I his master’s from Columbia. At 22. he became assistant minister of his father’s church. Seven years later, he succeeded his father as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church—a post which he still holds despite a series of marital trou- ■ bles that have shocked some of the church elders. Marries Three Times Powell has had three wives. The first, whom he wed in 1933, was ! Negro actress Isabel Washington. They were divorced in 1945. and Powell married pianist Hazel I Scott. They had a son, Adam i Clayton Powell 111, nicknamed j “Skipper,” who has gladdened his father’s heart by compiling a brilliant record in prep school and winning admission to MIT this fall. ' , The marriage to Miss Scott ended in divorce in 1960, and Powell married one of his congressional secretaries, a pretty Puerto Rican girl named Yvette Diago. Although both of Powell’s jobs —as minister and congressman—theoretically require him to maintain his residence in Harlem, his real - home these days is a $70,.000 beach house near San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he spends as much time as possible with Yvette and their infant son, born last year. His frequent trips to Puerto Rico some at government expense and his very high absenteeism record (he.missed nearly half of the roll call votes taken by the House during the past two sessions) have been' remarked upon unfavorably by his numerous critics, in and out of Congress. But evidently they have not distressed either his constituents or his congregation in Harlem. Throughout his 19 years in Congress, Powell has continually sought—and often found—dramatic ways to battle for Negro rights His favorite tactic has been introduction of “The Powell Amendment”—prohibiting federal aid to states which draw the color line in dispensing federal dollars.

Governor In Appeal To School Students INDIANAPOLIS (UPl)—Governor Welsh today appealed to Indiana high school students to help curb the rising number of dropouts from their ranks. Welsh, in a speech at Indianapolis Washington High School, told the students that 24,100 pupils dropped out of Indiana high schools this year without completing their studies. This was an increase of 2,800 over the year before. "If you know of any of your fellow students who are about to give up because they are having difficulty, or because they think a life without classes is easier, help them to know that by dropping out of school they would be choosing the hardest way of life,” Welsh said. Welsh said that for the high school drop-out the future is much darker than for those who complete their studies. “School drop-outs are potential delinquents, permanent welfare cases and unemployables. They are the young people who could have risen to real achievement but for reasons best known to themselves chose instead to spend the remainder of their lives at a disadvantage with you and others who have remained in school,” the governor said. He said recent surveys show that contrary to the popular belief. drop outs often are capable of being superior students and more than 20 per cent are college material. "The state is making every effort to provide counseling and guidance as well as additional training opportunity for these i youngsters who made their one but biggest mistake,” he said. Law Enforcement In Air Force Now Open Prior service personnel from the 771X0 career field in the Air Force or from the other services with experience in this field, are urged to contact Sgt. Crosby at the service Office in Decatur, on Monday for full particulars. TTiis is an opportunity for prior service men to;reenlist in the law enforcement field that has been closed for some time, according to Sgt. Bert Crosby, local Air Force representative. Presbyterian Pastor Ta General Assembly The Rev. Elbert A. Smith, Jr., pastor of the First Presbvterian church ‘of Decatur, left Monday for Des Moises, la., to attend the biennial general assembly of the United Presbyterian church in the U. S. A. He will return May 23. If you have something to sell or trade — use the Democrat Want ads — they get BIG results.

THE DECATUB DAILY DEMOCRAT, DECATUR, INDIAN A

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TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1963