sentences:  Not until the election of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. of New York City's Harlem did Congress feature two African Americans serving at the same time in the modern era.The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which strengthened black voting rights, increased the position of black office-seekers.Shirley Chisholm became the first African American female member of Congress when she won a 1968 election in New York, while Andrew Young of Georgia became the first modern African American congressman from the South after he won election in 1972.