Colin Powell was a retired, four-star general who served as 65th secretary of state during former President George W. Bush’s era from 2001 to 2005. Powell was born to working-class Jamaican immigrants and used the American military to forge a path toward full citizenship rights that were not available to most Black Americans when he began his career in the armed forces. For a time, after victory in the first Gulf war in 1991, he was the most popular man in USA. Such was his prominence that Powel... moreColin Powell was a retired, four-star general who served as 65th secretary of state during former President George W. Bush’s era from 2001 to 2005. Powell was born to working-class Jamaican immigrants and used the American military to forge a path toward full citizenship rights that were not available to most Black Americans when he began his career in the armed forces. For a time, after victory in the first Gulf war in 1991, he was the most popular man in USA. Such was his prominence that Powell was called upon to run against President Bill Clinton in 1996 and his name floated in the 2000 presidential elections, he turned it down, his wife Alma would not like the life. He chose the army where valour and merit counted and he was rewarded as the first black chairman of the joint chiefs and the first black national security adviser. Though he remained in Virginia, much of the tech-savvy former government official later work turned to venture capital and the private sector starting around 2005—after he left office. Colin Powell, who died aged 84 from complications of Covid-19, rose higher in public office than any previous black American.
