By Charles B. Rangel, the iconic Harlem Democrat who spent nearly half a century in Congress as both a legislative heavyweight and a symbol of machine politics at its most enduring—and most ethically compromised—died Monday at the age of 94, according to reports.
A decorated Korean War veteran and founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rangel rose to national prominence as the first African American chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Over 23 terms representing New York’s 13th Congressional District, he sponsored dozens of successful bills and helped shape major federal initiatives, including the Affordable Care Act, the 2009 stimulus package, and anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa. At home, his “Empowerment Zone” program channeled federal dollars into Harlem, modernized school infrastructure, and burnished his image as a champion of the working poor.
But Rangel’s formidable career unraveled in 2010, when a two-year House Ethics Committee investigation found him guilty of 11 violations ranging from tax evasion to the misuse of rent-stabilized apartments for campaign purposes. He had also failed to disclose hundreds of thousands in assets and improperly solicited donations for a public policy center bearing his name. After defiantly walking out of his own ethics trial—claiming his due process rights were violated—Rangel was formally censured by a bipartisan House vote, one of the harshest punishments short of expulsion.
Still, the scandal didn’t end his career. In true Tammany Hall fashion, he won reelection in a landslide, brushing aside critics who called for his resignation. Rangel once famously said, “I’m not going away,” and he didn’t—retiring on his own terms in 2017 after more than four decades in the House.
Even after leaving Congress, Rangel remained a fixture in Harlem. He became Statesman-in-Residence at The City College of New York and in 2022 launched the Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative to train the next generation of skilled workers in upper Manhattan and the Bronx. To admirers, it was a fitting final act for a man who never stopped working to uplift the neighborhood that raised him.
To supporters, Rangel was a war hero, a policy master, and a tireless advocate for racial and economic justice—decorated with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and known for outmaneuvering colleagues with a smile and a sharpened sense of political timing. To critics, he embodied the worst of Democratic patronage politics—trading on power, skirting ethical lines, and surviving scandal not through innocence but influence.
Rangel’s death marks the end of an era—not just for Harlem, but for a style of politics that prized clout over clean hands. He leaves behind a legacy as complicated as the man himself: a soldier, a statesman, and a survivor who shaped history—and broke the rules along the way.
