Interview with John Conyers  So did you find then that this was
the right time to start this--the Congressional Black Caucus?
Can you talk about the formation of the caucus?   The, the, ah,
the Congressional Black Caucus, there was, there was
conversations going on among the, the nine of us then that there
ought to be some coming together in, in a loose affiliation. Ah,
and, and I want to tell you that the, the Congress was far
different, ah, from, from the way it is now. I mean people
without seniority, if you weren't a southern chairman of a
committee, ah, you didn't have that much to do in the Congress
in those days. But, ah, Adam Powell, ah, ah, was, was, ah,
actually, ah, the person that said, "You, you don't need a Black
caucus." He said, "I represent all of you." I mean he used to
tell me that every time we would, we would tiptoe the subject up
to him, he'd say, "W- what do you need it for? I mean what's the
problem?" And, ah, we, we said we were going to do this anyway--