By ALANA WISE
(NPR) The American statesman Colin Powell died on Monday due to complications from COVID-19. He was 84 years old.
While many remember the four-star Army general for his history-making tenure as the nation’s first Black secretary of state and his controversial and misleading justification for the U.S. war in Iraq, the longtime Republican’s legacy also includes a notable break from his party to endorse Democrat Barack Obama in his first White House bid.
A race like no other
That presidential race, in 2008, became one of the most politically and socially consequential contests in American history.
