“Never had my portrait painted before,” Rangel croaks. His likeness will, of course, be the first of a black man to adorn the stately walls of 1100 Longworth. Noting that a number of other Americans of color, old colleague John Conyers and Brooklyn’s Nydia Velasquez among them, would be chairing committees in the 110th Congress, Rangel says he is “honored that the descendants of slaves might have their chance to restore the Constitution in this great nation of ours during this time of need.”

To sit in the big chair at the front of 1100 Longworth, where he’s spent so much of the past three decades, seems a fitting end to Rangel’s particular American journey. Looking around, he says, “I’ve always thought this was a beautiful room.”

Related:

• Archive: “Politics”
• Articles by Mark Jacobson
• Table of Contents: Jan 15, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!