Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, will deliver the Noah Krieger Memorial Lecture today at 4 p.m. in Salomon 101.
In his speech, Rangel will address topics concerning the war in Iraq and the effects of Hurricane Katrina, a representative at his New York office said. Rangel is an outspoken critic of President Bush, whom Rangel accused of being racist last month, comparing him to Southern segregation advocate Bull Connor, who turned fire hoses and police dogs on nonviolent civil right protesters in the 1960s.
Born in 1930, Rangel was raised in New York City. He served the U.S. Army during the Korean War from 1948 to 1952 and received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After returning from Korea, Rangel earned his undergraduate degree at New York University in 1957, then his law degree from St. John's University in 1960.
After serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and an assemblyman for the New York State Assembly, Rangel was elected to Congress in 1970. He was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and served as its chairman from 1974 to 1975.
In 1987, Rangel, a leader of the movement against South African apartheid, pushed the Internal Revenue Service to eliminate a tax credit for taxes paid to the South African apartheid government. He is also the author of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which has financed 90 percent of the affordable housing built in the country during the past 10 years. In 2003, Rangel introduced a bill to reinstate the military draft in an attempt to deter a unilateral U.S. strike against Iraq.
Sponsored by the Taubman Center for Public Policy, the Krieger lecture was created to remember Noah Krieger '93, who died shortly after his graduation from Brown. Past Krieger lecturers include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., and former Democratic presidential candidate and current Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean.
