Memories of the Powell Administration

In 1995, there were two Republican draft-Colin Powell movements—one led by whites, another by blacks. Both were certain they held the key to the true Powell.

Editor’s note: In the run-up to the 1996 election there was a brief movement to draft Colin Powell, who had been chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Persian Gulf War, to run as a Republican or an independent against Bill Clinton. Polls showed Powell’s popularity to be high, and the prospect of a black president stirred many Americans. Powell himself eventually popped the bubble by taking himself out of the running. But while the possibility remained alive, Powell became a Rorschach to blacks and whites in a way that would later echo in the successful presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. What follows is an excerpt from a chapter about Powell in Reputation: Portraits in Power (PublicAffairs © 2008 Timothy Noah), a collection of profiles Williams wrote during the 1990s. The essay first appeared in Vanity Fair.

Nowhere is Colin Powell’s anodyne excellence more attractive than in the area of race, where he carries an especially powerful—and mixed—message. In a year when the Supreme Court has made historic rulings against race-based remedies for discrimination, and affirmative action is the hottest of political hot buttons, his life proves anything you want it to. Powell is cited by some as proof that affirmative action isn’t needed—and by others as evidence of how well it works. His potential as racial healer is hailed, in both good and bad faith; it is also exaggerated, as suggested by the existence of two Republican draft-Powell movements in Washington, one of them led by blacks, one of them by whites, each group certain it holds the key to the true Colin Powell.

Some white Powell enthusiasts, however, are peddling the comforting belief that racism is a thing of the past. If black men with bachelor’s degrees now earn 76 cents for every dollar earned by their white counterparts, they’re just not trying hard enough.

The curious thing about Powell is that this chameleon quality seems to extend even to the impressions of people who know him very well. “We’ve talked about how the army is not an affirmative-action organization,” says Kenneth Adelman, a good friend of Powell’s who ran the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Reagan administration. “You can’t argue that you need affirmative action to do well. Because the army proves you don’t.” Yet Powell’s cousin J. Bruce Llewellyn argues precisely the opposite—also on the basis of conversations with Powell. “He’s for affirmative action,” Llewellyn says with certainty. “He wouldn’t have gotten where he is in the army if it hadn’t been for affirmative action….He’s said that a lot.”

One set of Powell supporters titles itself the Exploratory Draft Colin Powell for President Committee. With its offices in Prince George’s County, Maryland, the most heavily black of the suburban counties surrounding Washington, the group grew out of a black Republican scholarship organization. Its honorary chairman is Lionel Hampton, and its most visible spokesman is W. Ronald Evans, a 58 year-old entrepreneur who has interest in real estate and the auction business. Evans worked for Nixon at the Small Business Administration, and for Reagan at the Department of Energy’s Office of Minority Economic Impact. Evans resists the description of the draft group as a predominantly black effort, noting that “we have Hispanics, Asian-Americans, Native Americans working with us…. We have tried to take the color off it.” Yet Evans also declares of Powell, “Certainly, he’s going to be very, very positive in the civil-rights area because of whence he came.” Evans believes that “it puts us a hundred years behind of affirmative action is abolished.” For all the efforts of the group Evans represents, African-Americans have complicated reactions to Powell, who would by no means be assured of a large black vote. Powell’s real strength—his plausibility as a candidate—has far more to do with his appeal to America’s white majority.