General Colin L. Powell Way (Bronx)
Present name:None
Location:At the intersection of Kelly Street and East 163rd Street
Honoree: Colin Luther Powell (1937-2021) grew up in the ethnically mixed Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. His parents, Luther Powell, a shipping-room foreman in Manhattan’s garment district, and Maud Ariel McKoy, a seamstress, were immigrants from Jamaica. Mr. Powell was a pathbreaker, serving as the country’s first Black national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state. After graduating from Morris High School he attended City College, where he he enrolled in the college’s Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Cadet Powell also joined the Pershing Rifles, a drill team started by Gen. John J. Pershing, the top American commander in World War I. After graduating from City College in June 1958, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army, serving two decorated combat tours in Vietnam. Mr. Powell rose quickly through the ranks — including gaining a battalion command in Korea in 1973 and a brigade command in the elite 101st Airborne Division in 1976. He was tapped as a “water walker” by his peers, a term military men reserve for the most talented officers. In 1979, Mr. Powell, then 42, was promoted to one-star general, becoming the youngest general officer in the Army at the time. After serving as Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s senior military assistant, Mr. Powell, in the spring of 1986, went off to command V Corps, skipping division command altogether in leading 75,000 soldiers in West Germany in the waning years of the Cold War. Just five months later, President Reagan summoned him back to Washington to be national security adviser, a post in which he helped usher in a new era of cooperation with Mr. Gorbachev. Mr. Powell left the White House in 1989 to return to lead the Army’s Forces Command; the promotion made him only the fourth Black four-star general in Army history. He saw himself not only as a model for Black soldiers but also as a challenge to white bigotry. In October 1989, Mr. Powell succeeded Adm. William J. Crowe as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leapfrogging over 14 more senior four-star officers. Mr. Powell retired from the Joint Chiefs in 1993. He returned to government in December 2000, when he was the first person appointed to the cabinet of President-elect George W. Bush. He left office in January 2005, returning to life as a private citizen. Mr. Powell passed away on October 18, 2021 from complications of COVID-19. (Salamanca)
LL:2022/54

Shawn Powell Place (Brooklyn)
Present name:Concord Street
Location:Between Gold Street and Navy Street
Honoree: Shawn Powell was appointed to the FDNY on October 14, 1996 and was assigned to Engine Company 207 in Brooklyn. He died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
LL:2008/64