New Man From Harlem

THE man who defeated Adam Clayton Powell by a slim margin in a Democratic congressional primary last week has made a lifetime habit of doing the difficult and making it look easy. Charles Bernard Rangel, a 40-year-old black state assemblyman, unseated King Adam gently, avoiding harsh frontal attacks, building productive political alliances, and working, working, working. An ebullient native of the Harlem district that he will represent--unless Powell makes good a threat to run as an independent and succeeds--Rangel is a high school dropout who eventually earned a law degree. When he quit school in 1948, he joined the Army. During the Korean War, he earned the Bronze Star for leading his men from behind enemy lines to safety though he himself had been wounded. Discharged in 1952, he re-entered school, was an honor student at New York University and finally won a law degree from St. John's University.

In politics, he sensed early that Harlem would want to replace the once-effective Powell with someone who could produce more for the district. He served as an assistant U.S. Attorney and allied himself with another prominent black politician, Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton. In 1966 he was elected to the state assembly. Subsequently, he decided that 1970 was the year to go after Powell. Though his margin was cut by other candidates with the same notion, the voters proved Rangel right.

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