ADAM CLAY TON POWELL SR. (1865–1953) was born in Franklin County, Virginia, to Sally Dunning. His father was his mother’s master. As share‑croppers, Powell’s family lived in “direst poverty” (Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Against the Tide (New York: Little and Ives, 1938). In 1923, Powell led his church, Abyssinian Baptist, from its building in New York City to Harlem to reach the influx of African Americans who had moved there under the influence of the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance.