Former US Rep. Charles Rangel, who spent nearly 50 years representing
New York, has died
[May 27, 2025]
By DEEPTI HAJELA and CEDAR ATTANASIO
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, an
outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades
on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black
Caucus, died Monday at age 94.
His family confirmed the death in a statement provided by City College
of New York spokesperson Michelle Stent. He died at a hospital in New
York, Stent said.
A veteran of the Korean War, he defeated legendary Harlem politician
Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career. During
the next 40-plus years, he became a legend himself as dean of the New
York congressional delegation and, in 2007, the first African American
to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
He stepped down from that committee amid an ethics cloud, and the House
censured him in 2010. But he continued to serve in Congress until his
retirement in 2017.
Rangel was the last surviving member of the Gang of Four — African
American political figures who wielded great power in New York City and
state politics. The others were David Dinkins, New York City’s first
Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and
Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state.
“Charlie was a true activist — we’ve marched together, been arrested
together and painted crack houses together,” the Rev. Al Sharpton,
leader of the National Action Network, said in a statement, noting that
he met Rangel as a teenager.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York issued a statement
calling Rangel “a patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change
agent and champion for justice who made his beloved Harlem, the City of
New York and the United States of America a better place for all."
Rangel's voice was memorable
Few could forget Rangel after hearing him talk. His distinctive
gravel-toned voice and wry sense of humor were a memorable mix.
That voice — one of the most liberal in the House — was loudest in
opposition to the Iraq War, which he branded a “death tax” on poor
people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to end the war by offering a
bill to restart the military service draft. Republicans called his bluff
and brought the bill to a vote. Even Rangel voted against it.
A year later, Rangel’s fight over the war became bitterly personal with
then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
Rangel said Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, might be too
sick to perform his job.
“I would like to believe he’s sick rather than just mean and evil,”
Rangel said. After several such verbal jabs, Cheney hit back, saying
Rangel was “losing it.”
The charismatic Harlem lawmaker rarely backed down from a fight after he
first entered the House in 1971 as a dragon slayer of sorts, having
unseated Powell in the Democratic congressional primary in 1970. The
flamboyant elder Powell, a city political icon first elected to the
House in 1944, was ill and haunted by scandal at the time.
[to top of second column]
|
In this June 16, 2016 file photo, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.,
speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Rangel
retires after more than four decades in office. (AP Photo/Lauren
Victoria Burke, File)
In 1987, Congress approved what was known as the “Rangel amendment,"
which denied foreign tax credits to U.S. companies investing in
apartheid-era South Africa.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that he urged her to
run for the Senate in 2000. Former President Bill Clinton recalled
working with Rangel in the 1990s to extend tax credits for
businesses that invest in economically distressed areas.
The House censured him over ethics violations
Rangel became leader of the main tax-writing committee of the House,
which has jurisdiction over programs including Social Security and
Medicare, after the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats ended 12
years of Republican control of the chamber. But in 2010, a House
ethics committee conducted a hearing on 13 counts of alleged
financial and fundraising misconduct over issues surrounding
financial disclosures and use of congressional resources.
He was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The House found he had
failed to pay taxes on a vacation villa, filed misleading financial
disclosure forms and improperly solicited donations for a college
center from corporations with business before his committee.
The House followed the ethics committee’s recommendation that he be
censured, the most serious punishment short of expulsion.
‘Committed to fighting for the little guy’
Rangel looked after his constituents, sponsoring empowerment zones
with tax credits for businesses moving into economically depressed
areas and developers of low income housing.
“I have always been committed to fighting for the little guy,”
Rangel said in 2012.
Rangel was born June 11, 1930. During the Korean War, he earned a
Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He would always say that he measured
his days, even the troubled ones around the ethics scandal, against
the time in 1950 when he survived being wounded as other soldiers
didn’t make it.
It became the title of his autobiography: “And I Haven’t Had A Bad
Day Since.”
A high school dropout, he went to college on the G.I. Bill, getting
degrees from New York University and St. John’s University Law
School.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
