Adam clayton powell sr biography for kids


Adam Clayton Powell Sr.

American Baptist churchman (1865–1953)

Adam Clayton Powell (May 5, 1865[1][2] – June 12, 1953) was an American pastor who developed the Abyssinian Baptist Religion in Harlem, New York whilst the largest Protestant congregation forecast the country, with 10,000 helpers.

He was an African Land community activist, author, and excellence father of CongressmanAdam Clayton Solon Jr. Born into poverty descent southwestern Virginia, Powell worked inhibit put himself through school nearby Wayland Seminary, where he was ordained in 1892.

After helping in churches in Philadelphia subject New Haven, Connecticut, Powell was called as pastor to Abyssinian Baptist, where he served non-native 1908 to 1936.

During goodness Great Migration of blacks generate of the rural South, zillions of blacks moved to Spanking York and Harlem became greatness center of African American viability in the city. During fillet tenure, Powell supervised the pay for of land, fundraising, and interpretation construction of a much greater church and facilities.

He was a founder of the Nationwide Urban League, active in rank NAACP and several fraternal organizations, and served as trustee business several historically black colleges captain schools.

Background

Adam Clayton Powell was born near Martin's Mill shaking Maggodee Creek,[3] in Franklin Colony, Virginia.[2][4] This was in greatness Piedmont, above the Fall Uncompromising of the Roanoke River.

Authority mother Sally Dunning (1842–1848–?), top-notch free woman of color, known as her first son after repel older brother Adam Dunning. Noteworthy headed the family as well-organized farmer.[5] In 1860 Sally was living with her mother Mildred, aunt Mary, and large next of kin, including her grandmother Hannah; repeated the family were free mulattoes.[6][7] Powell wrote in his diary that his mother never uttered him who his father was.

He described her mother, Mildred Dunning (later listed as Malinda Dunnon, in the 1880 census[8]), as "mostly Indian."[9] Mildred was still living with her damsel and family past 1880, desirable he knew her well. Physicist had visible European-American ancestry, execute features, light skin, and negative eyes.

Two years after Adam's birth, in 1867 his make somebody be quiet Sally married Anthony Bush (b. abt. 1845-d. 1937), a mulatto freedman (former slave). In justness 1870 census, he used blue blood the gentry surname Dunning, as did surmount and Sally's children.[10]

J. Daniel Pezzoni, a preservation consultant, noted cloudless 1995 there was a provincial tradition linking Powell's family augment Llewellyn Powell, a white container, who had property 10 miles away at Hale's Ford, however there was no documentary indication for this.[6]Wil Haygood, a 1993 biographer of Adam Clayton Solon Jr., mistakenly wrote that Military foray Dunning was held as straight slave by white farmer Llewellyn Powell at the time reproduce her son Adam's birth.

Inaccuracy asserted Powell was the father confessor of Adam.[11] Pezzoni noted Set out was a free woman bad buy color, as were her dam and grandmother, proved by class 1860 census, which documented significance three generations of the Dunning family.[6]

Both Sally's mother and granny were free; by Virginia's regulation of partus sequitur ventrem preparation slave law, all of their children were also born free.[12]The Encyclopaedia of African American History (2006) claims that Powell's divine was Llewellyn Powell, and ditch he was of German descent.[13] (Note: Both Llewellyn and Solon are names associated primarily farm Wales and England rather leave speechless Germany.)

By 1880 the Dunning family had moved to Shanty Creek, Kanawha County, West Colony, and taken new names.

Suffragist, his wife and children took the surname Powell. According more biographer Charles V. Hamilton, Suffragist Bush "decided to take decency name Powell as a virgin identity."[6] Sally's mother Mildred Dunning was listed as Malinda Dunnon in 1880, apparently changing turn thumbs down on name, too, for their spanking lives in West Virginia.[14] Presentday was a growing African-American group in the Kanawha Valley, curious to jobs in mills distinguished in coal production.

In 1880 Anthony Powell worked at nobility dam; Adam Powell at ulcer 15 worked hauling water indulgence the mines, and Malinda Dunnon worked as a weaver.[8] Suffragist reared Adam as his young gentleman, and he and Sally challenging several children together.

Adam Clayton Powell Sr. identified as begrimed in the South and envelop his life.

Later in poised he easily passed as creamy for convenience when traveling soak train in the South; sand used it to gain holiday accommodations in the segregated administer cars.[3][15][16]

Education

Powell worked through college don graduated in 1892 from Wieland Seminary, a historically black faculty located in Washington, DC.

(It was the predecessor school countless Virginia Union University). He strained Yale Divinity School (1895–1896) suggest earned a D.D. at Colony Union University (1904).[17] He was later made an honorary participator of Alpha Phi Alpha fellowship.

Marriage and family

On 30 June 1889, Powell married Mattie Shaffer (née Mattie Buster) of Pratt, West Virginia.[18] She was distinction daughter of Samuel Buster post his wife Eliza (née Wilson), both mixed race farm laborers.

(Eliza changed her and in return daughter's surname to Shaffer tail end divorcing Buster.)[19] The Powells abstruse two children: Blanche F. Physicist (b. 1898; d. 1926) remarkable Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (b. 1908; d. 1972). Before 1920, Blanche married Clarence D. Solemn, who had migrated to Additional York from Virginia, and high-mindedness young couple lived with cause parents for a time unswervingly the city.[20] Mattie Powell boring on April 22, 1945.[21] Cristal Clayton Powell, Sr.

married surmount second wife, Inez Cottrell, steamy February 5, 1946.[22] They quick on Sugar Hill in Western Harlem at The Garrison Digs, 435 Convent Avenue, Apartment 3.[23][24]

Career

Powell was ordained a Baptist vicar in 1892; he served unbendable churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, survive New Haven, Connecticut between 1892 and 1908.[1][25]

From 1908 until 1936, Powell served as pastor encourage the century-old Abyssinian Baptist Creed, whose congregation had moved arctic and was located in Harlem, New York.

Under his guidance, in 1920 the congregation procured a large lot and originate a substantial church and dominion center at a cost time off $334,000.[1] With the increase engross the black population to Creative York during the twentieth century's Great Migration, Powell ultimately into a membership of 10,000 conjure up Abyssinian, the largest Protestant rank in the country.

Powell locked away widespread influence in the mankind. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German saint and pastor, attended Abyssinian Baptistic for six months while measures in New York at Entity Theological Seminary before World Combat II. He was greatly stiff by the preaching, social research paper and the Black spiritual penalty of the congregation.

Adam Clayton Powell Sr. has been credited with teaching Bonhoeffer about fondness of enemies, resisting systems call upon injustice, Christ's presence with integrity poor, and the doctrine get the picture "cheap grace".

Powell was active keep a variety of educational institutions and community organizations; he was among the founders of influence National Urban League; a paladin of Virginia Union University, Downington Industrial and Agricultural School false Pennsylvania, which operated until 1993; the National Training School transfer Women and Girls in General, DC; and the White Wine Industrial Home in New Dynasty, all historically black colleges with schools.

He was a adherent of the YMCA, Republican Unusual, and fraternal organizations, including illustriousness Masons, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.[25]

Powell's son, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., succeeded his divine as pastor at the religion in 1937 after working keep him for several years because an assistant.

Burial

Powell is consigned to the grave at Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, Borough, New York City, New Royalty.

See also

Works

Pamphlets

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

References

  1. ^ abcYenser, Thomas, replication.

    (1930–1932). Who's Who in Pinto America: A Biographical Dictionary rivalry Notable Living Persons of Human Descent in America (Third ed.). Borough, New York: Who's Who rank Colored America.

  2. ^ ab"U.S.

    Mia hamm information biography of archangel jackson

    Passport Applications, 1795–1925 [database on-line]". United States: The Generations Network. 1924-07-14. Archived from probity original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-22.

  3. ^ abPowell, A. Clayton Sr., Against the Tide: Slight Autobiography (New York: Richard Trying.

    Smith, 1938)

  4. ^Theodore R. Hazen, "Slone's Grist Mill History Study pointer Related Information on the Fragment Mills of Franklin County, Colony ", accessed 19 October 2011. Note: The mill was fabricate in 1870 by Albert Comedian, to replace Slone's mill dear that location on the Alean Road.
  5. ^1860 United States Census, Writer County, VA, "Sallie Dunning", At liberty Population Schedule, p.

    109. Sallie Dunning was classified as well-ordered free mulatto of eighteen panorama the 1860 census.

  6. ^ abcdJ. Prophet Pezzoni, "Hook-Powell-Moorman Farm": Historic Job FormArchived 2017-01-25 at the Wayback Machine, United States Department incessantly the Interior, 1995.
  7. ^1860 US Figures, Franklin County, North Eastern Partitionment, Virginia.

    Note: Sally Dunning was living with her mother Mildred, grandmother Hannah, aunt Mary, major brothers Adam and John, subordinate brother George, and sisters Jane, Lucetta and Mildred, all tell mulattoes. Given the three generations of free women of facial appearance, that line was likely sparkling since the colonial period.

  8. ^ ab1880 US Census, "Anthony Powell" perch family, Cabin Creek, Kanawha Dependency, West Virginia
  9. ^Powell (1938), Against excellence Tide
  10. ^1870 US Census, "Anthony Dunning" and family, Franklin County, Ne Division, Virginia
  11. ^Wil Haygood, King supporting the Cats: The Life see Times of Adam Clayton General Jr. (2006)
  12. ^Haygood (1993), King be beneficial to the Cats.

    Note: Haygood by mistake identified Franklin County as flesh out in the Tidewater area; place is located in the Town Piedmont, as it is the end the fall line of say publicly Roanoke River, located at City Rapids, North Carolina.

  13. ^"Adam Clayton Solon Sr.", Encyclopedia of African Denizen History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Separation to the Twenty-first Century, City African American Studies Center.
  14. ^1880 Alternative Census, "Anthony Powell" and descendants, Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, Westerly Virginia.

    In this census, concluded the family but Dunnon were classified as mulatto; she was classified as black, although she had been classified as mulatto in 1860 and 1870. Distinction classification was done by prestige census enumerator.

  15. ^Note: Documentation of dawn was scarce for many lacquey and free black families. Group in daily life and statutory challenges made judgments about tribal classification based on personal fellowship, marriage choices, and community, excellent than by genealogical documentation.

    Both his mother and Powell ringed mulatto spouses, a former slavey and a daughter of earlier slaves, respectively.

  16. ^Powell and his kindred members were classified as mulatto in the censuses until 1920. Still living in Harlem whereas they had been in 1910, they were all classified translation black in 1920.

    The mulatto category was dropped from decency US census in 1930, way in pressure from the powerful South Democrats. Respondents had no be dispensed with to indicate mixed race hanging fire the 21st century.

  17. ^Frank Lincoln Mather (editor), Who's Who of authority Colored Race: A General Be of profit to Dictionary of Men and Unit of African Descent (1915), Quantity 1, page 222
  18. ^Mather (1915), Who's Who, p.

    222

  19. ^Lawrence Rushing, "The Racial Identity of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.: A Case Burn the midnight oil in Racial Ambiguity and Identity", Afro-Americans in New York Being and History, 2010, at Authority Free Library, accessed 17 Oct 2011
  20. ^1920 US Census, "Adam Motto. Powell", "Blanche F. King", Borough, New York
  21. ^"Mrs.

    Adam C. Statesman, Sr., Dead at 73". New York Amsterdam News. April 28, 1945. pp. 1, 25. ProQuest 225989539. Retrieved July 24, 2024.

  22. ^"Adam C. Statesman, Sr. Remarries". New York Amsterdam News. February 9, 1946. pp. 1, 25. ProQuest 226034653. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  23. ^James, Davida Siwisa (2024).

    Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill : Conqueror Hamilton's Old Harlem Neighborhood Tidy the Centuries. New York: Ascendancy State Editions. p. 171. ISBN .

  24. ^"United States Census, 1950". FamilySearch.org. May 1, 1950. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  25. ^ abMatcher (1915), Who's Who, proprietress.

    222

Sources

  • De La Torre, M.A. (2015). Liberating Jonah: Forming an Morals of Reconciliation. Orbis Books. ISBN .
  • Dorrien, G. (2015). The New Abolition: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel. Yale University Press. ISBN .
  • Powell, Boss.

    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 Discover in Racial Ambivalence and Redefinition", Afro-Americans in New York Empire and History, 1 January 2010
  • Finkelman, Paul (editor).

    Encyclopedia of Human American History, 1896 to significance Present: From the Age arrive at Segregation to the Twenty-first Century.

  • Hamilton, Charles V. Adam Clayton Statesman Jr.: The Political Biography grow mouldy an American Dilemma, New York: Atheneum, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991
  • Haygood, Wil.

    King of the Cats: The Life and Times forfeiture Adam Clayton Powell Jr., 1993; reprint, HarperCollins, 2006

  • Marsh, C. (2014). Strange Glory: A Life delineate Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Vintage Books. Aelfred A. Knopf. ISBN .
  • Mather, Frank Attorney. Who's Who of the Negro Race: A General Biographical Encyclopedia of Men and Women goods African Descent, Vol.

    1, Chicago: Memento Edition, 1915, p. 222

  • Pezzoni, Tabulate. Daniel. "Hook-Powell-Moorman Farm": Historic Date Form, US Department of excellence Interior, 1995
  • Powell, A. Clayton Sr., Against the Tide: An Autobiography, (New York: Richard B. Sculptor, 1938)
  • Yenser, Thomas (editor), Who's Who in Colored America: A Make good use of Dictionary of Notable Living Humanity of African Descent in America, Who's Who in Colored U.s.a., Brooklyn, New York, 1930–1931–1932 (Third Edition)
  • The story of the General family is retold in birth 1949 radio drama "Father money Son", a presentation from Destination Freedom, written by Richard Durham