[mountaineer]

Oops, ACP IV is NOT his real name - pardon my typo.

Some guy's blog says this:

Adam Clayton Powell IV. There are few greater pleasures in the world than watching Harlem politics. And the upcoming battle between Adam Clayton Powell, IV and ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel, was going to be a battle of the superheavyweights. It was slated to be hotter than Sylvia's gumbo.

As the legend goes: Charlie Rangel humiliated Adam Powell's dad, the legendary Adam Clayton Powell, arguably the grandaddy of Harlem, a larger than life figure. Light-skinned, Powell passed for white, and ended up going to elite universities and moving in powerful circles. He wasa good looking man, and that helped him navigate in both the black and white worlds during the Civil Rights struggles, in Congress, representing Harlem

In his later years, alas, he became corrupt (on a Nigerian-Russian scale), carousing with busty women and whiskey instead of defending Harlem's interests in Congress during the crucial civil rights era. Rangel, it is said in legend, headed the delegation to Bimini sent to seperate Powell from the booze and chicks (party pooper!). Powell, allegedy, slapped Rangel in the face during the "impromptu intervention" and said, simply, "you do what you gotta do, baby"

And he did. In defeating Powell, which led to the great man's ruin on the cliffs of unfulfilled destiny, Rangel became the new biggest cat in the jungle in Harlem politics. Cut to a few decades later, the former great man's son, Adam Clayton Powell, IV, has come back to avenge the family name (like Andrew Cuomo, like George Bush the Younger). Powell was born of a Puerto Rican mother, and has a base in both black Harlem and the rising Latino demographic. Add the fact that he inherited his father's looks. The battle, as they say, was on like Gray Poupon

After Powell got elected to an Assembly seat, it was only a matter of time before WW III. Even Al Sharpton, angry that Rangel didn't support his presidential bid, . threatened to inject himself on the side of Powell But the rape allegations in a seedy Howard Johnson's that sufaced against Powell may have ended the dream. link.

[mrustow]

I don't know much about Adam Powell's younger days, but I know that as a congressman, he was blacker than thou, the most vociferous, black racist in America. He was Al Sharpton before there ever was an Al Sharpton. He claimed that the corruption charges against him were motivated entirely by racism. Note too that Powell was the head preacher at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem (inherited form his dad, Adam Sr.), the largest and most influential black church in America. And in his womanizing, he was a classic example of the tradition of black preachers who "minister" to female members of their flock. And minister ... and minister (As in, Oh, Minister! Oh, Minister! Ohhh, Minister!!!)

And if you think the current owner of the name is pretty, you should have seen the father (grandfather?) Imagine Clark Gable with light brown skin. And Adam was supposedly a grand demagogue of an orator. Great pipes.