Charles B. Rangel

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Charles Bernard Rangel (born June 11, 1930) is an American politician who served in New York from 1971 to 2017.

He was the second-longest serving incumbent member of the House of Representatives at the time of his resignation, and he served in the House of Representatives for the longest time since 1971.

He served as the Dean of New York's congressional delegation, as the country's most senior official.

Rangel was the first African-American Chair of the influential House Ways and Means Committee.

He is also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rangel was born in Harlem, Upper Manhattan, and has lived there since.

During the Battle of Kunu-ri in 1950, he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service in the United States Army, where he led a group of troops out of a deadly Chinese army encirclement.

The service of the military and the education of young people is woven into the fabric of life, military service, and education.

Rangel was born in Harlem, New York City, on June 11, 1930. Ralph Rangel's father, who was born in Puerto Rico, immigrated to New York in 1914, while Blanche Mary Wharton Rangel, a black woman from New York City with roots in Virginia, was from Virginia. Charles was the second of three children, with older brother Ralph Jr. and a younger sister Frances. Ralph Rangel used to work as a labourer in a garage, but he was mainly an often abused, unemployed man who was insulting to his wife and who left the family when Charles was six years old. Charles was raised by his mother, who worked as a maid and seamstress in a factory in New York's Garment District, and his maternal grandfather. Many summers were spent in Accomac, Virginia, where his maternal family had roots. Charles was raised as a Catholic.

Rangel did well in elementary and middle school, and he began working at a neighborhood drug store at the age of eight. Rangel attended DeWitt Clinton High School, but he was often tardive and was sometimes led home by the police. His maternal grandfather, a young role model who served in a courthouse and knew many judges and lawyers, kept him from falling into more serious situations. Rangel dropped out at age 16 during his junior year and spent time in various low-paying professions, including selling shoes.

Rangel was first enlisted in the United States Army and served from 1948 to 1952. During the Korean War, he was an artillery operations specialist in the all-black Field Artillery Battalion in the 2nd Infantry Division, and was outfitted with the 155 mm Howitzer M1. (though President Harry S. Truman had signed the order to segregate the military in 1948, no progress had been made in doing so during peacetime, and the vast majority of units sent to Korea were still segregated). Rangl's unit arrived in Pusan, South Korea, in August 1950, and started moving north as UN forces pushed deep into North Korea.

After the Chinese intervention into the conflict, his unit was involved in heavy combat in North Korea as part of United Nations forces' withdrawal from the Yalu River in late November 1950. The 2nd Infantry in Kunu-ri was sent to serve in a road position near Kunu-ri, while the rest of the Eighth Army was sent to Sunchon, 21 miles south. The 2nd Infantry was attacked by gradually encircling forces of the Chinese Army, who laid up a fireblock to prevent any U.S. departure. The eerie blaze of Chinese night-fighting bugle calls and communications flashs pervading the freezing air resulted in what Rangel later described as a "waking nightmare, scene by scene, and we couldn't see any potential solution to the situation." During the day on November 30, the order was ordered to withdraw the 2nd Infantry in phases, but the 503rd Artillery Battalion was sixth of eight in the order, and it was impossible to get out in daylight when air coverage was present.

Rangel was trapped and threatened by Chinese forces on the night of November 30, 30 meters below. Shrapnel from a Chinese shell struck the back of a sub-cold Rangel. The explosion threw him into a ditch, causing him to cries fervently to Jesus, he later explained. Officers lost touch with their troops as a result of the unit's disarray, unit cohesion was destroyed, and soldiers lost touch with their soldiers. "Because of the ferocious rage surrounding him and several US troops being arrested, Rangel determined to flee over an imposing peak."

Others in Rangel were taken to the unit, but only a private first class had a reputation for leadership and had adopted the term "Sarge." During the night and out of the Chinese encirclement, Rangel led some 40 guys from his team across the mountain. Other groups were planning to do the same, but some men were unable to function or injured and were never seen again. By midday, U.S. aircraft were dropping supplies and directions to Rangel's company and others, as well as some others, and they were rafting them across the Taedong River; groups from the 503rd Artillery reached Sunchon that afternoon. Overall, no one in the 2nd Infantry suffered as many casualties as the artillery; it tried to save, but then lost all of its weapons, and over half of the battalion was killed in the overall war.

Rangel was first admitted to a field hospital first and then moved to a general hospital in South Korea, where he recuperated. He eventually returned to regular service, but was then rotated back to the United States in July 1951.

Rangel was given a Purple Heart for his wounds, the Bronze Star with Valor for his life in the face of death, and three combat stars. The Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation were given to his Army unit. In a CBS News interview in 2000, Rangel reflected on the experience: During a CBS News interview: a photographer from Rangel reflected on the event:

In 1952, he was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of staff sergeant, and he returned home to the New York Times. Rangel viewed his time in the Army, away from the hardships of his youth, as a pivotal point in his life: "I knew damn well that I couldn't get back to the same life I had left."

Rangel completed high school, completing two years of study in a year. The G.I. is a computerized watchdog. Bill Rangel earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the New York University School of Commerce in 1957, where he made the dean's list. He earned his law degree from the University School of Law in St. John's in 1960 on full scholarship.

Rangel is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He is also a member of the World Policy Council, a think tank whose aim is to broaden Alpha Phi Alpha's involvement in politics and social and current policy to include international issues.

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Early career

After finishing law school Rangel passed the state bar exam and was hired by Weaver, Evans & Wingate, a prominent black law firm. Rangel made little money in private practice, but did build a positive reputation for providing legal assistance to black civil rights activists. In 1961, Rangel was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and worked under U.S. Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. He stayed in the position for a year.

Next Rangel was legal counsel to the New York Housing and Redevelopment Board, associate counsel to the Speaker of the New York State Assembly, a law clerk to pioneering Judge James L. Watson, and general counsel to the National Advisory Commission on Selective Service (1966), a presidential commission created to revise draft laws. His interest in politics grew.

Rangel met Alma Carter, a social worker, in the mid-late-1950s while on the dance floor of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. They married on July 26, 1964. They have two children, Steven and Alicia, and three grandsons.

He ran for party district leader and lost during an intense Democratic factional dispute in Harlem in 1963. In 1964, Rangel and the man who would become his political mentor, Assemblyman Percy Sutton, merged clubs as part of forming the John F. Kennedy Democratic Club in Harlem (which later became part of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Club).

Rangel participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, marching for four days even though he had planned only a brief appearance. He developed what The New York Times would label his irrepressible energy and joking style of self-mockery during this time.

Rangel was selected in September 1966 by Harlem Democrats to run in the 72nd District for the New York State Assembly, after the incumbent Percy Sutton had been elected by the New York City Council members from Manhattan as Manhattan Borough President to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Constance Baker Motley as a federal judge. Rangel was victorious, serving in the 177th and 178th New York State Legislatures until 1970. He emerged as a leader among the black legislators in the state and became politically friendly with Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, who arranged for Rangel to run on the Republican as well as Democratic ballot line during his 1968 re-election.

Rangel supported legalization of the numbers game, saying "For the average Harlemite, playing numbers... is moral and a way of life." He also opposed harsher penalties on prostitutes, on grounds of ineffectiveness. He was strongly concerned by the effects of drugs on Harlem, advocated that drug pushers be held accountable for the crimes committed by their users, and in general believed the problem was at the level of a threat to national security.

In 1969, Rangel ran for the Democratic nomination for New York City Council President. In a tumultuous race that featured sportswriter Jimmy Breslin as mayoral candidate Norman Mailer's running mate, Rangel came in last in a field of six candidates.

In 1970, Rangel ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging long-time incumbent Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., in the Democratic primary in New York's 18th congressional district. Powell had been an iconic, charismatic, and flamboyant figure who had become embroiled in an ethics controversy in 1967, lost his seat, and then regained it in 1969 due to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Powell v. McCormack. In a field with five candidates Rangel focused on criticizing Powell's frequent absences from Congress. In the June primary Rangel defeated Powell by 150 votes out of around 25,000 cast. Powell tried to take legal action to overturn the result claiming over 1,000 ballots were improper votes but was unsuccessful. Powell also failed to get on the ballot as an independent. With both Democratic and Republican backing, Rangel won the November 1970 general election–against a Liberal Party candidate and several others–with 88 percent of the vote.

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