26-05-2025
Harlem community mourns loss of "guiding light" Charles Rangel
The Harlem community was in mourning Monday after the death of Charles Rangel, the longtime United States congressman who had a profound impact on the neighborhood.
From community centers to college programs, the name carries a legacy that will live on for generations.
"When it came to his community, he guarded it with his life"
Flags were at half-staff at the City College of New York. The school has the Center for Public Service in Rangel's name, as well as the Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative. Board member Michael J. Garner says Rangel was involved in both.
"Seeing that it was funded and that the training started and residents stated ascertaining jobs in Harlem, in other places where taxpayer-driven capital construction projects were being built," Garner said.
Garner is also the former president of the founding chapter of One Hundred Black Men, which focuses on mentoring and economic development. Rangel was a member of that prominent community organization, as well as Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity's Harlem chapter.
"With respect to the pathway he has opened up for people like me ... giving us a guiding light to how we should move in the community to be able to improve the communities that we live and work in," said Robert Alleyne, president of the Alpha Phi Alpha Harlem chapter.
Photos of Rangel hang on the wall of Sylvia's Restaurant on Malcolm X Boulevard. Second generation owner Kenneth Woods says Rangel was his mom's attorney when the restaurant went into business back in 1962.
"He was very critical in the creation of the corporation of this restaurant," Woods said, "and a very close confidante of my mom, dad and the family. He was family."
Rangel always remembered what Harlem did for him, as well. In fact, he said that it was the Apollo Theater that helped to shape him.
"The Apollo was like the Mecca. It just, if you've been there as a kid, and I used to play hooky and go there, and I used to sit in the front," Rangel said in an interview in 2007. "And until this day, when Billie Holiday was singing, I swear she was singing to me."
"There's a reason why they call him the 'Lion of Lenox Avenue' because, you know, he can make you feel like you were the most important person in the world, but when it came to his community, he guarded it and he guarded it with his life," said Keith Wright, county leader of the Manhattan Democratic Party.
Rev. Al Sharpton recalls decades-long friendship with Rangel
Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network says he met Rangel when he was 12 years old, and their friendship spanned over 60 years.
"I remember when I had a youth group, National Youth Movement, and we began saying there are crack houses in the community and everyone knows where they are and we painted red Xs. Charlie Rangel came and got a pail of paint and helped us paint red Xs on crack houses," Sharpton said.
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 04: (L-R) Charles Rangel and Al Sharpton attend Rev. Al Sharpton's Private Birthday Celebration at The Grand Havana Room on October 4, 2013 in New York City.
Johnny Nunez/WireImage
He added, "[In] 1999, when police killed Amadou Diallo and we were leading protests against that, Charlie Rangel called me and said, 'I see y'all getting arrested every day at 1 Police Plaza.' He came down, while he was this powerful congressman with seniority, and got on a knee and was arrested in front of 1 Police Plaza protesting police brutality."
Sharpton added he feels God has a sense of humor, because Rangel, a decorated war veteran, died on Memorial Day.
Lisa Rozner
Lisa Rozner joined CBS News New York in 2017. She covers a wide range of stories.
contributed to this report.
