he gets away with it because people will not hold him accountable.”
“I think it shows to the world what is possible in this country,” Powell said of his history-making nomination during his Senate confirmation hearing. “It shows to the world that: Follow our model, and over a period of time from our beginning, if you believe in the values that espouse, you can see things as miraculous as me sitting before you to receive your approval.”
Later in his public life, Powell would grow disillusioned with the Republican Party’s rightward lurch and would use his political capital to help elect Democrats to the White House, most notably Barack Obama, the first Black president whom Powell endorsed in the final weeks of the 2008 campaign.
“He was a great public servant” and “widely respected at home and abroad,” former President George Bush said. “And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man.”
Powell leaves his three children and his lovely wife Alma of nearly 60 years of marriage.
The pair had met on a blind date in Boston, where Alma, who attended Fisk University and did her graduate work at Emerson College, worked as a speech pathologist. In that same year they married on August 25th 1962, Colin and Alma married at First Congregational Church in the Smithfield community of Birmingham.
Mrs. Powell’s grandfather was born into slavery, and her grandmother was born just after slavery ended. Against enormous odds, both earned college degrees — then saw their five children through college, too.
In the process of finding love, Colin and Alma altered the course of American History.
Thank you for your service, Gen. Powell.