So Fresh and So Green

Far as I know here you’re in trouble. Where it says about 30% are unemployed. That’s why I’m working hard to get this surplus food here.

Some of you say to me ‘Well I’m not like you. I’m not a congressman. Uhhh I haven’t had education. Uhhh I haven’t got work…Uhhh…’ But you’re a human being.

And do you know what you’ve got?

You’ve got in your hand the power to use your vote and to use even those few cents you get from welfare to spend them only where you want to spend them. ~Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the congressman who represented Harlem between 1945 and 1971. He was also the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.

While in congress Powell headed the powerful Education and Labor Committee which managed to pass a record number of bills including public school desegregation bills and bills that made lynching a federal crime.

At a time when congress can’t seem to get anything progressive passed it is that much more of an impressive feat that Powell was able to accomplish what he did while the country was still so racially polarized.

He was accused of misappropriating funds, was excluded by the congress then won a Supreme court lawsuit to get his seat back.

He lost his seat to Charles Rangel in 1970 who still holds that congressional seat till this day. What I love about this famous speech Powell made is that he connected the dots for Black people, as opposed to just delivering a crowd pleasing speech.

This speech is about how empowered Black people are and all that we don’t realize we can do.

I can’t stress the importance of this. It seems we still haven’t listened to and applied Powell’s words here, brought to you by one of my inspirations Gil Noble from his long running show Like It Is.

He even shouts out George Washington Carver and does not credit him with inventing peanut butter- and rightfully so. He’s credited here with what he actually did.

“What’s in Your Hands” speech by Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Never mind his womanizing or anything else in his personal life. That was never important. To read more about the highlights or his career in congress check out The Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives Historical Highlights