On the Lam

Democratic Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. is the most powerful and probably the most popular political figure in Harlem. And he keeps that status even though he has been on the lam from Harlem, and New York State, for nearly two years.

Powell's problem is this: on March 6, 1960, he appeared on television to indulge in one of his routine denunciations of cops in Harlem, most of whom he claims are on the take from gamblers, narcotics and flesh peddlers; in the course of his diatribe, he named a Harlem widow named Esther James as "bag woman" for the police department.

Mrs. James sued Powell for libel, went to court, won a $211,500 jury verdict, which a judge later cut down to $46,500. To avoid paying off, Powell has since steered clear of New York, spent most of his time commuting between Capitol Hill, where he manages to appear for two or three days every week or so, and his villa in Puerto Rico. Interest on his evaded libel penalty has increased the amount owed to $52,000, and last week a jury, reviewing the whole history of the case, awarded Mrs. James an additional $210,000 for a total of $262,000.

"Lily-White Bench." At no time has Powell appeared in court on his own behalf. And last week he chose for the first time to give any public explanation of "my side of the case." He rose in the House of Representatives, where he could say whatever he wished and, under the U.S. Constitution, be legally free and clear of any threat of libel or slander.

Whereupon, in "this holy place, this well of this great body," he delivered himself of one of his most demagogic speeches. Harlem's cops, he cried, are "the dregs of the police force." The U.S. press is unfair, he added, and particularly the New York Times, "the unfriendliest newspaper in the entire U.S. to me."

Powell claimed that he was a victim of New York's "lily-white bench and underworld-controlled judges." Cops and crooks were in cahoots to prevent him from cleaning up Harlem's corruption. Prize example: Arthur Powers, a gambler, was shot to death last Oct. 20; the killers, Terry Lindsay, "Skippy" Martin and "Hank" Hawkins, were known, but "have been sheltered by the police." Moreover, Esther James, the 68-year-old domestic whom Powell had already libeled, was the "finger woman" for the murder.

"Only One." As usual, Powell was less than careful with his facts. Gambler Powers had been killed on the specified date. One Perry--not Terry--Lindsay was arrested a few days later, has been in jail ever since, and is under indictment on a first-degree murder charge. Police have been hunting for Martin and Hawkins for months, but apparently the two men are, like Powell himself, on the lam. As for his latest charge against Esther James, Powell probably would have been hit with another libel suit if he had made it anywhere except on the House floor, where he has immunity.

Powell concluded his self-exonerating House speech with a stirring statement about his battle against the forces of evil: "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, that I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do!"

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