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He's a black, a militant black, who I don't like who comes from Detroit, and who thought he was going to be the successor to Adam Powell. But many more blacks came in, many more who had a better press going for them, like Ron Dellums for one or Perrin [Parrin] Mitchell or even Charlie Rangel, so that today John Conyers is a secondary figure in the black caucus, and he thought he was going to be the successor, because before the onsurge of more blacks, there were very few in the Congress -- maybe thre or four when I got there, John Conyers being the leader. Charlie Diggs was there, and he's a rather quiet type, a couple of others maybe, but now I think there are maybe 17 or 18. Okay.
I'm sure I have a wealth of Bella stories in my head, but I'm repressing them for some reason. A funny story was that when the Congress stayed on on a Saturday -- we didn't go out on a Thursday or Friday, as we normally do -- a lot of people went home on Friday, and she was one of them. I stayed. I stayed over Friday night and Saturday morning to be there when the legislation, whatever it was, was coming up. And nine o'clock in the morning there's a telephone call. You have to understand: Bella doesn't talk to me. And it's Bella at the other end. She knew I'd be there because I'm always in the office early. With her very distinctive voice: “Hello, Ed.” “Hi, Bella.” “Ed, I forgot my hat. Could you bring up my hat?” I said,
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