Colin Powell had mixed legacy among some African Americans

But his legacy as the first Black person in those roles is murkier, with some African Americans saying that his voice on their behalf could have been louder.

Through it all, Powell never seemed entirely comfortable talking about race, said Kevin Powell, a New York-based writer and rights activist who is not related to Colin Powell.

There was never a sense that Colin Powell was one of us,” said Kevin Powell, who met him in the 1990s, when he was often discussed as a potential presidential candidate.

Bush left office, Powell “was largely invisible in a lot of things that happened — Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, George Floyd,” said Kevin Powell, who also is Black.

Years before the 2020 murder of George Floyd renewed calls from the Black Lives Matter movement to “defund the police,” Powell said he was not in favor of reducing law enforcement budgets to address police brutality.

The program was eventually renamed the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.

In the wake of Floyd’s slaying and the Black Lives Matter protests, the school launched a racial justice fellows program as a joint initiative between the Colin Powell School and CCNY’s Black studies program.

Powell once said he wanted the next generation to have opportunities like he did, according to Andrew Rich, dean of the Colin Powell School?

Former President Barack Obama said Monday that Powell helped “a generation of young people set their sights higher” and “never denied the role that race played in his own life and in our society more broadly.”.

Many Black people look to high-achieving African Americans to act on their behalf, said Frederick Gooding, associate professor of humanities at Texas Christian University

It might be one of those deals where he may not have spoken for every Black person, but at the same time it’s OK that he does not,” Gooding said

“When it comes to African Americans, often times, when you’ve been touched by the struggle so to speak, when you have a position of power and privilege, do you leverage it?” Gooding said