1908 Born November 29, in New Haven, Connecticut.
1930 Received his BA from Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. Became assistant pastor at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.
1932 Received his MA in Religious Education from Columbia University, New York, NY. Became an instructor at Columbia University Extension School.
1933 Led a demonstration at New York's City Hall demanding more doctors and better health care at Harlem Hospital.
During the Depression Era, he directed relief operations that fed, clothed, and provided fuel for thousands of Harlem's needy. He also led a four year "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaign which resulted in the employment of thousands of African Americans by utility and bus companies, retail stores, and the 1939 World's Fair.
1935 Wrote an article on the Harlem Riots that criticized police brutality and the discrimination of African Americans which led to a regular column in the Amsterdam News entitled "Soap Box".
1937 Appointed pastor to Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.
1938 Received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Shaw University, Raleigh, NC.
1941 Elected to the New York City Council, he was its first African American member.
1942 Co-founded and published the People's Voice newspaper. Member of the National Negro Congress.
Member of the Manhattan Civilian Defense.
1944 Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; he was Harlem's first Member of Congress, and the first African American from the northeast to be elected to the House of Representatives. Elected thereafter to the eleven succeeding Congresses.
Once he reached Washington, D.C., he fought for an end to discriminatory practices around that city, and throughout the United States. Leading by example, he used segregated facilities, which he was not authorized to use, such as dining rooms, steam baths, and barbershops. In Congress he introduced legislation advocating the end of racial discrimination, including the first legislation to abolish Jim Crow laws in transportation, and the first bill to prohibit segregation in the Armed Forces.
He authored the Powell Amendment, which deprived federal funds to any institution that continued to practice racial discrimination. He tried to attach this amendment to any spending bill. A version of the amendment was codified in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1947 Received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA.
1955 Attended the first Asian-African Conference, Bandung, Indonesia. Appointed Chairman of the U.S. Congressional Delegation to the Independence of the West Indies, Trinidad.
1960 Appointed Chairman of the House
Committee on Education and Labor.
As Chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, he directed the development and passage of over sixty pieces of legislation that established social programs, created jobs, and expanded educational and artistic opportunities.
1967 Excluded from his seat in the Ninetieth Congress. Elected to the Ninetieth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by his exclusion, but he did not appear to be sworn in. Reelected to the Ninety-first Congress.
1969 Restored to his seat In Congress by the Supreme Court.
1970 Defeated by Charles Rangel for his seat in the Ninety-second Congress. Retired as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
1972 Died April 4 In Miami, Florida.
(Monument board of directors and major contributors not transcribed, click on marker photograph to read them.)
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