Colin Powell: Commencement Address at Howard University

About the Author

Colin Powell was not a typical African American leader. He did not have a résumé as a civil rights advocate, nor did he have any significant ties to the larger African American community. He was a Protestant, but his religious affiliations were not an important part of his background, and as an Episcopalian he seldom saw black parishioners in his congregation let alone in positions of leadership. Rather, Powell rose to prominence through the U.S. Army and not as a result of partisan politics or community activism. Partly because of his extraordinary organizational talents and partly because of fortuitous circumstances, Powell achieved the highest rank in the American military through a series of appointments in the executive branch of the national government. At the peak of his career in the early 1990s, Powell was arguably America’s most experienced and successful expert on issues of national defense.

Colin Luther Powell was born in Harlem, New York City, on April 5, 1937, the second of two children of Jamaican immigrant parents. Four years later, he and his parents moved to a four-room apartment in the South Bronx, where Powell would spend his formative years in a mixed-race environment. In his neighborhood no ethnic group could claim to be in the majority, and young Powell would grow up in an atmosphere of racial tolerance. Colin was an indifferent student in public schools despite his parent’s hope that he would excel in his studies. After graduation from Morris High School in the Bronx, he gained admission to the City College of New York, where he initially intended to study engineering. Low grades in mathematics, however, persuaded him to change to the less-challenging curriculum in geology, and he graduated with a BS degree in 1958. Along the way, Powell discovered that his real love was participating in the City College of New York Reserve Officers Training Corps program, in which he established a brilliant record. He was a C student in most of his college courses, but he excelled in Reserve Officers Training Corps courses and summer encampments.

Despite the fact that his postgraduation officer training was in the segregated South at Fort Benning, Georgia, Powell was determined not to be distracted by racial bigotry. He later observed in his autobiography that even though he felt the sting of southern racism, he “was not going to let bigotry make me a victim.” Focused and determined, he finished in the top ten of his officer class. After tours of duty in Germany and Vietnam as an infantry commander, Powell was promoted to the rank of major in 1964 after only eight years of service, a clear indication that he was on a fast track to success. In 1967 he was among the top ten in his class at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, general staff and command school. After finishing a graduate degree in management at George Washington University, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Two years later he graduated from the National War College and was promoted to the rank of full colonel.

Although he often longed for a field command, Powell’s destiny led him to Washington, D.C., instead. He served first in the Pentagon during the presidential administration of Jimmy Carter and later under President Ronald Reagan as a military adviser in the Department of Defense, reporting to Frank Carlucci and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. When Carlucci became national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, Powell was his chief assistant. Just months later, in 1987, Powell succeeded him as national security adviser and head of the National Security Council. In the George H. W. Bush administration, Powell was promoted to the rank of four-star general and became the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the military. As the chief commander of American forces in the First Gulf War, coordinating the efforts of his field commander, Norman Schwarzkopf, Powell was the symbol of American military success in Iraq and widely admired for his “Powell Doctrine” of controlled and pragmatic use of military force.

Powell’s meteoric rise in the military (made more impressive by the fact that he was not a graduate of a military academy) and his reputation for sound judgment and practical wisdom inevitably brought him to the attention of politicians who saw in him untapped political potential. George H. W. Bush flirted with asking Powell to be his vice presidential running mate, President Bill Clinton wanted the general to be his secretary of state, and Senator Robert Dole offered him a place on his 1996 Republican ticket. Moreover, thanks to his leadership in the First Gulf War, Powell became a household name to many Americans whose admiration for him was reflected in several opinion polls and magazine articles during 1991 and 1992, which showed that he was well liked by a majority of Democrats and Republicans as well as independents.

Powell retired from military service in 1993 and began a lengthy process of evaluating his future in national politics. At the same time, he began work on his autobiography, My American Journey (1996), and launched an extensive speaking schedule to promote his book and himself during 1994 and 1995. The Howard address was part of that campaign of self-promotion. Powell eventually decided not to run for president, but he did accept an offer from George W. Bush to serve as secretary of state, a position he held during Bush’s first term from 2001 to 2004. Powell resigned his post amid the controversy surrounding his justification for the invasion of Iraq, although he has since remained quiet about his role in the events leading up to the war. In the month before the presidential election of 2008, General Powell publicly endorsed Barack Obama.

In 2010 Colin Powell was living in retirement with his wife of almost fifty years, Alma, in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Together, they headed America’s Promise, a nonprofit corporation that aids disadvantaged young people in a program that reflects Powell’s philosophy of self-help, education, and high moral standards.