From Which Good Things Came Part 1
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908-1972) became the first African American to serve in the U. S. Congress (1945 to 1971) representing the 22nd congressional district, which included Harlem. Powell also served as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, perhaps the most politically powerful African American congregation in New York City. Both of Powell’s parents were southerners. He had this to say about the culinary culture of his childhood home in Harlem. My mother’s black stove was a place of magic where the coal fire always glowed and from which good things came . . . For breakfast we had a different hot bread every morning—muffins, biscuits, corn bread, loaves of hot oatmeal bread with handfuls of raisins and blueberries sprinkled through them [and] pancakes . . . the size of a big frying pan . . .
