Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Stokely Carmichael

George Tames's photograph pictures politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908-1972), left, and civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) laughing together in a congressional office corridor. Born thirty-three years apart, Powell and Carmichael represented two different generations in the campaign for civil rights. Powell—the son of Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.—was New York City's first black congressman, having been elected to that office in 1944. From this position, Powell became famous for fighting segregation in the military, public education, and organized labor. During the 1960s especially, he helped to develop and pass a number of important civil rights bills. Raised in New York City, Carmichael shared Powell's commitment to civil rights. As the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) beginning in 1966, Carmichael conducted his work principally in the streets, rather than in the halls of Congress.