[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 45 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 45

  Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States Postal 
 Service should issue a postage stamp in commemoration of Congressman 
                        Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 10, 2009

  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 in commemoration of 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 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;
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 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;
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
    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.
                                 <all>