(AURN News) — On May 5, 1865, pastor and activist Adam Clayton Powell Sr. was born in Franklin County, Virginia.
As a youth, Powell struggled, but after attending a revival meeting, he committed his life to Christianity. He later studied at Wayland Seminary, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., earning his degree in 1892.
He married Mattie Fletcher in 1889, and they had two children: Blanche Powell and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Four years later, Powell became minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Philadelphia, growing the congregation from 25 to 600 members.
By 1908, he had taken over Abyssinian Baptist Church in Manhattan, where his powerful preaching and calls for racial justice helped grow the church’s membership to 14,000, making it the largest church in the United States.
A member of the NAACP and the National Urban League, Powell fought for Black employment and civil rights and led a 1917 silent protest against racial injustice.
Powell retired in 1937 and died in New York City in 1953 at age 88.
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