America’s first black Secretary of State, Colin Powell, died on Monday from complications from Covid 19. He was also Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George W Bush.

Powell had multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body’s immune response, as well as Parkinson’s.

Colin Powell was born April 5, 1937, in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrants.

Powell entered the US Army after graduating in 1958, and served in the US military in Vietnam during the 1960s.

Powell’s reputation and legacy was damaged by his justifying of the US’ war in Iraq.

In February 2003, Powell delivered a speech before the United Nations in which he presented evidence that the US intelligence community proved Iraq hid weapons of mass destruction.

“There can be no doubt,” Powell warned, ‘that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more.’

UN weapons inspectors, however, later found no such ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. Powell’s statement at the UN led to great loss of life in Iraq.