Charles Rangel, former longtime N.Y. congressman who represented Harlem, dies at 94

Erica Ortiz, NBC News

Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and became the first Black chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Charles Rangel, the Democratic former congressman from New York who championed his Harlem community on Capitol Hill for almost five decades, died Monday, his family said.

He was 94.

City College of New York spokesperson Michelle Stent confirmed Rangel’s death in a statement, saying he died at a hospital in New York.

Politicians and supporters remembered Rangel, known as Charlie, for his years in public service and deep roots in New York City. He was born in Harlem and was first elected to Congress in 1970, representing a congressional district that was first drawn up in the 1940s and allowed the neighborhood’s majority Black voters to send one of their own to Washington.

Rangel served for so long that he earned the nickname the “Lion of Lenox Avenue,” referring to one of Harlem’s primary corridors.

“Charlie Rangel was a great man, a great friend, and someone who never stopped fighting for his constituents and the best of America,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday on X. “The list of his accomplishments could take pages, but he leaves the world a much better place than he found it.”

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