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It's been a brutal week for Harlem politicians. On March 3, Charlie Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and 20-term representative from New York's 15th district, announced he would temporarily relinquish his stewardship of the powerful tax-writing body in the wake of an ethics investigation that found he violated protocol by accepting corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean. The decision came on the heels of scandal-scarred New York Governor David Paterson's announcement that he will not run for re-election in the fall. The synchronized setbacks of two longtime Harlem leaders have prompted a flurry of obituaries for the Harlem dynasty, which for decades has been the unquestioned nerve center of black politics in the U.S.
Rangel and Paterson's father Basil were members of Harlem's Gang of Four, along with Percy Sutton -- a civil rights activist, lawyer and local power broker, who died Dec. 26 at 89 -- and David Dinkins, who served as mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. The group inherited a tradition passed down from trailblazers like Adam Clayton Powell Jr., whom Rangel unseated in 1970, and together shattered scores of racial barriers, attaining offices once dismissed as off-limits and paving the way for the ascension of black leaders around the country. In the process, they turned Harlem -- long the epicenter of African-African culture -- into a political mecca, its pull strong enough to entice former President Bill Clinton to base his foundation headquarters on the district's main thoroughfare of 125th Street. But with Rangel, 79, giving up his gavel, the Paterson era in Albany lurching toward an end and Dinkins having long since stepped away from the scene, Harlem's political might has diminished.
The current crop of Harlem politicians know that measuring up to their predecessors' accomplishments is impossible. "They are absolutely historic figures," says New York state assemblyman Keith Wright, who represents the district. "Without Percy, Charlie, Basil and Dinkins, you probably wouldn't have this number of [politicians] in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, in Queens. They're pioneers." But Wright acknowledges that the power they accumulated is now flowing elsewhere -- to the outer boroughs of New York City and to cities like Chicago, President Barack Obama's adopted hometown.
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