Former US Congressman Charles Rangel Dies At 94
Former U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, a Democrat from the state of New York, who served as a member of the House of Representatives
from 1971 until 2017, died Monday at the age of 94.
As ABC News reports, Rangel spent a great deal of his tenure as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the first Black person to hold that position. Rangel was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus,
In a statement announcing his death, his family wrote, “A towering figure in American politics and a champion for justice, equity, and opportunity, Congressman Rangel dedicated over four decades of his life to public service.”
From ABC:
He stepped down from leading the Ways and Means Committee amid an ethics scandal for violating House rules. Rangel was accused of 13 counts of violating those rules, but emphatically denied any wrongdoing. Ultimately, Rangel was found to have violated 11 separate rules of the House and was censured — a public shaming in the well of the chamber.
He was known as the “Lion of Lenox Avenue” by his Harlem constituents.
As Hip-Hop Wired notes, “One of the hallmarks of Rangel was his no-nonsense approach to working for his constituents and his ability to work across the aisle with the opposing parties to get bills moved through the chamber. Rangel also had an affable personality that resonated well with his colleagues, and his distinctive New York accent was hard to miss.”
Someone with a career as storied as Charles Rangel is going to be celebrated with tributes from people of all walks of life and all across the political sphere. Hip-Hop Wired curated some of those responses and put them together as a tribute to a political legend who set out to serve the people and did just that.
Check out Hip-Hop Wired’s post, and the tributes to Rangel from the likes of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Rev. Al Sharpton, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, among others.
