Charles B. Rangel, Longtime Harlem Congressman, Dies at 94

Charles B. Rangel, the former dean of New York’s congressional delegation, who became the first Black chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, only to relinquish that position when he was censured for an ethics violation, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 94.

His death was announced by his family. His friend Lloyd Williams, the president of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, said he died in Harlem Hospital, on 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.

“Charlie was born on 132nd Street between Lenox and Fifth, and when he became successful he moved to 135th Street between Lenox and Fifth,” Mr. Williams said. “He used to joke about moving up — three blocks.”

A mainstay of Harlem’s Democratic old guard, Mr. Rangel was first elected to Congress in 1970, toppling the raffish civil rights pioneer Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a 13-term incumbent. He went on to serve in the House longer than any other New Yorker but one: Emanuel Celler, who represented Brooklyn for nearly 50 years until his defeat in 1972.

Mr. Rangel retired in 2016 after winning a 23rd term despite the ethics allegation — making him the ninth-longest continuously serving member of the House in American history.

In 2000, he was instrumental in persuading Hillary Clinton to enter electoral politics by running for the Senate from New York when Daniel Patrick Moynihan retired.