FILE -
In this
Sept. 6,
2017,
file
photo,
the
president
of the
National
Action
Network's
Michigan
Chapter,
the Rev.
Charles
Williams
II,
left,
and the
group's
political
director,
Sam
Riddle,
speak
about
plans to
protest
Kid
Rock's
performances
in
Detroit.
As an
American
leader,
Colin
Powell’s
credentials
were
impeccable:
Former
Joint
Chiefs
chairman
and
secretary
of
state.
Riddle
says
Powell,
who died
Monday,
Oct. 18,
2021, of
COVID-19
complications,
“personified
a quiet
inner
strength
that we
knew he
held on
the
battlefield
for
America
and for
Black
Americans.”
(Tanya
Moutzalias/The
Ann
Arbor
News via
AP,
File) |
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FILE -
In this
Dec. 1,
2010
file
photo,
President
Barack
Obama
talks
with
reporters
after
his
meeting
with
former
Secretary
of State
Colin
Powell,
left, on
the
importance
of
ratifying
the New
START
Treaty,
in the
Oval
Office
at the
White in
Washington.
Powell,
former
Joint
Chiefs
chairman
and
secretary
of
state,
has died
from
COVID-19
complications.
In an
announcement
on
social
media
Monday,
the
family
said
Powell
had been
fully
vaccinated.
He was
84. AP
Photo/J.
Scott
Applewhite) |
|
Colin
Powell
had
mixed
legacy
among
some
African
Americans
By COREY
WILLIAMS
and
AARON
MORRISON
apnews.com
DETROIT
- As an
American
leader,
Colin
Powell’s
credentials
were
impeccable:
He was
chairman
of the
Joint
Chiefs
and
secretary
of
state.
But his
legacy
as the
first
Black
person
in those
roles is
murkier,
with
some
African
Americans
saying
that his
voice on
their
behalf
could
have
been
louder.
Powell,
who died
Monday
of
COVID-19
complications,
spent 35
years in
the Army
and rose
to
political
prominence
under
Republican
presidents
Ronald
Reagan
and
George
W. Bush.
His
stature
fueled
persistent
speculation
that he
would
one day
run for
president
as a
member
of the
GOP.
Through
it all,
Powell
never
seemed
entirely
comfortable
talking
about
race,
said
Kevin
Powell,
a New
York-based
writer
and
rights
activist
who is
not
related
to Colin
Powell.
“I think
that’s
why a
lot of
Black
folks
never
saw him
as a
leader.
There
was
never a
sense
that
Colin
Powell
was one
of us,”
said
Kevin
Powell,
who met
him in
the
1990s,
when he
was
often
discussed
as a
potential
presidential
candidate.
Colin
Powell
later
became
disenchanted
with the
GOP and
endorsed
Democrats
for
president,
starting
with
Barack
Obama.
Powell
also
called
then-President
Donald
Trump a
national
disgrace
and said
he no
longer
considered
himself
a
Republican
following
the Jan.
6
storming
of the
Capitol.
“By the
time the
Bush
years
were
over, in
2009, he
was
largely
invisible
in a lot
of
things
that
happened
—
Trayvon
Martin,
Ferguson,
George
Floyd,”
said
Kevin
Powell,
who also
is
Black.
“It was
clear
that the
party he
was part
of was
moving
right. I
don’t
recall
him ever
saying
this
party
has
become
nothing
more
than
race
mongers.”
But
Powell’s
dignity
and
composure
should
not be
interpreted
as any
indication
that he
failed
to
understand
the
struggle
of his
people,
according
to Sam
Riddle,
an Army
veteran
and
Detroit-based
political
activist.
“He
personified
a quiet
inner
strength
that we
knew he
held on
the
battlefield
for
America
and for
Black
Americans,”
said
Riddle,
who also
hosts a
Detroit
talk
radio
show.
“The
bullhorns
we can
use can
be
simply
quiet
competency,
integrity
and
perseverance.”
Powell
expressed
concern
over the
U.S.
rate of
incarceration,
which
has
consistently
been the
highest
in the
world.
He
favored
policies
designed
to keep
young
adults,
especially
Black
Americans,
out of
the
criminal
justice
system.
Years
before
the 2020
murder
of
George
Floyd
renewed
calls
from the
Black
Lives
Matter
movement
to
“defund
the
police,”
Powell
said he
was not
in favor
of
reducing
law
enforcement
budgets
to
address
police
brutality.
He
suspected
that
many
Black
Americans
agreed.
A June
2020
poll
conducted
by The
Associated
Press-NORC
Center
for
Public
Affairs
Research
around
the
height
of that
summer’s
police
protests
showed
that 43%
of Black
Americans
strongly
supported
or
somewhat
supported
reducing
police
funding,
while
30%
opposed
the
idea.
“You
can’t
say, ‘We
should
disinvest
the
criminal
justice,
police
and
courts,’”
Powell
said in
2017.
“They’re
there
not just
to
protect
white
folks.
They’re
there to
protect
Black
folks as
well.”
He
continued:
“If you
tell a
Black
community
leader
that the
police
are not
going to
be
around,
they may
say,
‘Whoa!
Wait a
minute!’
What
they
want is
fair and
balanced
justice
treatment
for all
Americans.”
A child
of
Jamaican
immigrants
who grew
up in
the
Bronx
borough
of New
York
City,
Powell
said he
was
raised
in a
community
where
his
neighbors
were as
invested
in his
safety
and
success
as his
own
mother
and
father.
“I had
adults
who
cared
about
me,”
Powell
said in
a 2017
interview
with
Mic. “My
two
parents,
all my
Jamaican
relatives
in the
South
Bronx,
they
watched
out for
us kids.
And if
you ever
did
anything
wrong, I
mean,
you were
going to
get it.”
Powell
graduated
in 1958
from
City
College
of New
York,
which
later
created
the
Colin
Powell
Center
to
develop
student
leadership
and
campus
community
engagement.
The
program
was
eventually
renamed
the
Colin
Powell
School
for
Civic
and
Global
Leadership.
In the
wake of
Floyd’s
slaying
and the
Black
Lives
Matter
protests,
the
school
launched
a racial
justice
fellows
program
as a
joint
initiative
between
the
Colin
Powell
School
and
CCNY’s
Black
studies
program.
Powell
once
said he
wanted
the next
generation
to have
opportunities
like he
did,
according
to
Andrew
Rich,
dean of
the
Colin
Powell
School.
Being a
Black
American
“defined
his
experience,”
Rich
said.
“He was
a
trailblazer
in every
sense. I
think he
was very
aware of
the
barriers
he
broke.
One of
the
things
he was
so proud
of was
that he
knocked
open
doors
and did
not
close
them
behind
him.”
Former
President
Barack
Obama
said
Monday
that
Powell
helped
“a
generation
of young
people
set
their
sights
higher”
and
“never
denied
the role
that
race
played
in his
own life
and in
our
society
more
broadly.”
“But he
also
refused
to
accept
that
race
would
limit
his
dreams,
and
through
his
steady
and
principled
leadership,
helped
pave the
way for
so many
who
would
follow,”
Obama
said.
Many
Black
people
look to
high-achieving
African
Americans
to act
on their
behalf,
said
Frederick
Gooding,
associate
professor
of
humanities
at Texas
Christian
University.
“Maybe
they
just
disproportionately
expect a
Colin
Powell
to do
more or
be more
than he
needs to
be. It
might be
one of
those
deals
where he
may not
have
spoken
for
every
Black
person,
but at
the same
time
it’s OK
that he
does
not,”
Gooding
said.
Powell’s
career
and his
long
record
of
public
service
show his
excellence,
Gooding
added.
“When it
comes to
African
Americans,
often
times,
when
you’ve
been
touched
by the
struggle
so to
speak,
when you
have a
position
of power
and
privilege,
do you
leverage
it?”
Gooding
said.
“He may
not have
been
that
front-line
cheerleader,
but that
doesn’t
mean he
wasn’t
affected
by the
struggle.”
___
Morrison
reported
from New
York
City. He
and
Williams
are
members
of the
AP’s
Race and
Ethnicity
team.
Follow
Morrison
on
Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
Follow
Williams
on
Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/coreyapreporter.
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