Rangel, Charles Bernard

Rangel, Charles Bernard

(răng`gəl), 1930–, U.S. congressman, b. New York City. Receiving his law degree from St. John's Univ. in 1960, Rangel served in the New York state assembly (1966–70) before defeating (1970) fellow Democrat Adam Clayton PowellPowell, Adam Clayton, Jr.,
1908–72, American politician and clergyman, b. New Haven, Conn. In 1937 he became pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, and he soon became known as a militant black leader.
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, Jr., to win the first of his 23 terms as U.S. representative for New York City's Harlem. A long-time member of the House ways and means committee, he became its chairman in 2007, stepping down in 2010 after a series of revelations of various financial improprieties. Later that year he was found guilty of a number of House ethics violations and censured by the House. Rangel also chaired (1983–93) the former select committee on narcotics.