Community service focus of Powell’s visits to state
Colin Powell, the first Black U.S. Secretary of State, died Monday from complications of COVID-19, according to his family. He was 84.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the Powell family said in a statement.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell saw combat in Vietnam and worked his way up the ranks of the Army, becoming the first Black national security advisor during Ronald Reagan’s second term and the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush.
After leading the U.S. and its allies in Operation: Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War, Powell became so popular in the 1990s that he was touted as a potential presidential candidate.
Powell, a four-star general who served as Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, stepped foot in Oklahoma four times in the past two decades. Each visit he emphasized how service to community shaped his career.
2000 rally for OU’s Big Event
In 2000, Powell visited the University of Oklahoma to deliver a keynote address for the student volunteer initiative, The Big Event.
Powell had served as founding chairman of America’s Promise, an alliance of nonprofits and organizations dedicated to improving the lives of young people, since 1997.
“I was an at-risk Black kid in the worst section of Harlem,” Powell said then. “I
should have gone on the wrong path, but I didn’t. It was my community that looked out for me.”
Before delivering his speech at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Powell was met with a standing ovation from university students, state lawmakers, and nearly 1,000 high school and middle school students.
Powell said at the time that, after serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he felt he was too old to rejoin the Army, so he decided to focus on programs to mentor young people.
The next year, Bush nominated Powell for his cabinet, confirming him as the 65th secretary of state and the first African American in the position.
His role in building support for the Iraq War, and specifically his presentation of faulty intelligence to the United Nations regarding alleged weapons of mass destruction, complicated his public image.
Powell’s time in the Bush Administration ended with his resignation.
2006 visit for the Oklahoma Historical Society
In 2006, Powell spoke at the Oklahoma History Center to a group from Oklahoma City University.
Powell had re-entered private life and joined California-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, for which he would remain a partner until his death.
2007 OU visit for ‘Challenges Facing America’
Powell returned to the state in 2007 to visit OU again, this time to speak about challenges facing America.
“Part of your payment for what you receive has to be reaching down, back and across and helping others who are less fortunate than you and who may never be able to get to a facility such as this, an institution such as this, unless you help bring them along,” he told students.
2018 visit for OKC Refresh Leadership
Powell’s final visit to Oklahoma was in 2018, during a speaking engagement on leadership values hosted by Express Employment Professionals in Oklahoma City.
“As the keynote speaker, Gen. Powell addressed the audience by drawing on his experience as a leader on the world stage, illustrating what he thought were the pillars necessary to be a successful leader, particularly in times of great change and when juggling difficult crises,” said Sheena Hollander, public relations director for Express Employment Professionals.
Broadcast live from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the event had hundreds in attendance and reached more than 7,000 attendees across 215 locations in the U.S. and Canada, according to the staffing company.
Powell is survived by his wife, Alma Johnson, whom he married in 1962, and three children.