Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.

Who was Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.?

Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was a pastor who developed the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York as the largest Protestant congregation in the country, with 10,000 members. He was a community activist, author, and the father of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Born into poverty in southwestern Virginia, Powell worked to put himself through school and Wayland Seminary, where he was ordained in 1892.

After serving in churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Haven, Connecticut, Powell was called as pastor to Abyssinian Baptist, where he served from 1908-1936, during the Great Migration of blacks out of the rural South, when Harlem became the center of African-American life in New York. During his tenure, he managed the purchase of land and the construction of a larger church and facilities from congregational tithing. He was a founder of the National Urban League, active in the NAACP and several fraternal organizations, and served as trustee of several historically black colleges and schools.