Harlem’s political dynasty in eclipse

NEW YORK | They ran the city, represented civil rights leader Malcolm X and were black pioneers who put Harlem on the political map. The “Gang of Four” were kingmakers who built Harlem’s political dynasty into an empire. But with high-profile blows this week to one member and the son of another, the group’s legacy is in disarray.

It seems unlikely that Gov. David A. Paterson could have become the state’s first black governor without the groundwork laid by the group - and the connections that came with being the son of Basil Paterson, one of the quartet along with Rep. Charles B. Rangel, political power broker Percy Sutton and former New York City Mayor David Dinkins.

But with the younger Mr. Paterson ending his election bid following a scandal over an abuse complaint against his aide, Mr. Rangel facing accusations of breaking congressional rules, the death of Mr. Sutton in December and the aging Mr. Dinkins fading from public view, the power base that made Harlem a launching pad for the state’s black leadership seems to be dissipating.

“In a sense, their day has passed,” Baruch College politics professor Doug Muzzio said of the elite group who led Harlem’s political heyday. “It has not gone on to a second generation. … You will no longer have such geographically and personally concentrated influence within the black community.”

Besides the governor’s woes, the House ethics committee accused Mr. Rangel on Thursday of breaking House rules by accepting corporate money for trips to conferences in the Caribbean. He is facing calls for his removal as chairman of the chamber’s powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

“I don’t know if it’s so much an end of an era for Harlem politicians as it is Harlem politicians getting caught doing what all politicians do,” said Harlem resident Malik Doyle, bemoaning the loss of strong direction for the neighborhood and said he worries the area’s young people will suffer without clear role models.

Mr. Sutton was a civil rights trailblazer who represented Malcolm X and a media mogul who served in the New York state Assembly and as Manhattan borough president. Mr. Dinkins became the city’s first black mayor.

The four nurtured a generation of black leaders, including H. Carl McCall, the first black person to win statewide office when he was elected comptroller in 1994. On Friday, Mr. McCall said he owed his start to the foursome.

“They had a real impact,” he said. “They were the kind of people who were out front and served as models for others, not only of Harlem, but throughout the city. People looked up to them and came to them for advice, came to them for support.”

The foursome helped open doors not only for political leaders such as U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., but also for black businesses, Mr. McCall said.

Mr. McCall argued the city still has strong black leadership, although the highest-profile figures are now coming out of Brooklyn and Queens.

“There’s good young people, new people and new voices emerging from other parts of the city, so I don’t think this is something bad, that Harlem is the only place for leadership.”

Among those considering a run to replace Mr. Rangel is Adam Clayton Powell IV, the son of one of Harlem’s early political talents and the state’s first black congressman - himself expelled from the House in 1967 in a corruption scandal. The younger Mr. Powell has a pending case for a drunken-driving arrest in 2008 in Manhattan.