Daniel Levinson Wilk is a professor of American history at SUNY-Fashion Institute of Technology.
A few weeks ago Charles Rangel, the Lion of Lenox Avenue, was carried into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with a full military guard. Rangel, a longtime U.S. congressman from Harlem, was the chair of the Ways and Means Committtee in the House of Representatives, the committee with authority over taxes, tariffs, and benefits; many consider it to be the most important committee in the House. Until the election of Barack Obama, Rangel was arguably the most powerful African-American politician in the history of the United States.
As mourners gathered in the cathedral, two scandal-ridden New York politicians running to become the next mayor of the city, ex-governor Andrew Cuomo and current mayor Eric Adams, glad-handed up front with congresspeople and other notables. Zohran Mamdani, a left-wing politician who would soon win a shocking victory over Cuomo in the Democratic primary, worked the pews halfway back. State legislators compared notes on when they’d gotten home last night after the final vote on the budget…