Charles Rangel

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 May 26 2025 in Manhattan. He was 94. A Representative from New York; born in New York, N.Y., June 11, 1930; attended DeWitt Clinton High School; B.S., New York University School of Commerce, Washington Square, N.Y., 1957; LL.B. (J.D.), St. John’s Law School, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1960; United States Army, 1948-1952; lawyer, private practice; assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, 1963; counsel to speaker of the New York state assembly, 1965; counsel to the President’s Commission to Revise the Draft Laws, 1966; secretary, New York State Penal Law and Code Revision Commission; member of the New York state assembly, 1966-1970; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-second and to the twenty-one succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1971-present); chairman, Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control (Ninety-eighth through One Hundred Third Congresses); chair, Committee on Ways and Means (One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses); chair, Joint Committee on Taxation (One Hundred Eleventh Congress). In 1964 he married Alma Carter, a social worker, whom he had met at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. His wife died before him. He is survived by their son, Steven; their daughter, Alicia Rangel Haughton; and three grandsons.