Word: bagwoman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Once upon a time in 1960, New York Democratic Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, 56, called a Harlem housewife named Esther James a "bagwoman," meaning, in Harlem patois, that she was a graft collector for the police department. Mrs. James, declaring her innocence, won a $46,500 libel judgment against him, but thanks to his intricate legal dodges, it may be a long time before she collects. Nonetheless, Mrs. James's bag, in theory at least, should be comfortably full. Last week the State Supreme Court in Manhattan awarded her an extra $163,500, as a result of Adam...
...against Negroes. In the course of a House speech on that subject, Powell declared that one Esther James, a Harlem Negro, had been "extorting money from gamblers for the purpose of transmitting this money to police officers.'' Later, in a TV interview, he called Mrs. James "a bagwoman for the police department." That seemingly pointless attack on one of his own race proved to be a costly blunder...
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