NEW YORK — Charles Rangel, the unapologetic Harlem congressman who spent nearly half a century transforming American politics from the streets of New York to the halls of Congress, has died. He was 94.
Rangel’s family confirmed his passing Monday at a New York hospital. He was the last living member of the city’s legendary “Gang of Four” — a group of Black political giants who reshaped New York power and punched holes in the machinery of white-dominated politics.
Born in 1930 and battle-hardened in Korea — where he earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star — Rangel defied death, poverty, and expectations to become one of the most powerful Black lawmakers in U.S. history.
In 1970, he unseated the iconic Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and began a 46-year congressional run that would make him the first Black chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Rangel was a fighter and impossible to ignore.
Voice of Harlem, champion of the ‘little guy’
To Harlem residents, he was the people’s congressman: sponsoring empowerment zones, pushing tax incentives for low-income housing, and delivering on his promises.
“I have always been committed to fighting for the little guy,” Rangel once said.
Charles Rangel: A career shaped by justice — and controversy
Rangel was no stranger to fire, both literal and political. A high school dropout who rose through the G.I. Bill and St. John’s Law, he saw combat in Korea before taking on Congress.
He fought apartheid with legislation. He clashed with Vice President Dick Cheney over the Iraq War, once calling the war a “death tax” on Black and poor Americans.
But his career wasn’t untouched by scandal. In 2010, the House Ethics Committee found him guilty of 11 violations, including failing to report rental income and improper fundraising. The House formally censured him.
Still, he refused to step aside quietly, serving until his retirement in 2017. By then, he had become the dean of New York’s congressional delegation and a living emblem of Harlem’s political might.
The last of the “Gang of Four”
Charles Rangel outlived his peers: David Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, Manhattan’s former borough president; and Basil Paterson, deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. Together, they cracked doors open for the next generation of Black leadership.
Rev. Al Sharpton called Rangel a “true activist,” remembering the marches, the arrests, and even “painting crack houses together.” Hakeem Jeffries, now House Democratic Leader, called him “a patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice.”
His life’s motto: “I haven’t had a bad day since”
That line — the title of his autobiography — came from his time in Korea. Charles Rangel once said that after surviving the battlefield while others didn’t, he could never call another day in life “bad.”
He reminded America that Black political power isn’t just about being elected. It’s about staying in the fight long enough to rewrite the rules. And in the words of his own Harlem community, Charlie Rangel stayed in it — with heart, heat, and history behind him.