December 16, 2000 - Colin Powell - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Colin Powell becomes first African American U.S. Secretary of State. Born in New York City, Colin Powell graduated from City College of New York in 1958 before receiving a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He later received his MBA from George Washington University in 1971 and served in the military. He was the White House’s national security advisor from 1987 to 1989 before becoming the first black chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He held this top military job under Presidents Bush and Clinton before retiring in 1993. He chose not to run for president of the United States, but on December 16, 2000, President-elect George W. Bush named Powell to his cabinet’s top job of Secretary of State. That made Powell the first African American to hold the post. Considered a moderate who would exert a moderating force on Bush’s administration, he won unanimous consent in the Senate in early 2001. But Powell’s moderate approach was often rebuffed by the president and his cabinet, which likely influenced Powell’s decision to resign after Bush’s re-election in November 2004. Bush’s National Security Advisor, at the time Condoleeza Rice, stepped into the Secretary of State position in 2005 after Powell, becoming the second woman and first African American woman to do so.

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