One day in 1997, Colin Powell visited his old stomping grounds on the Pentagon’s E Ring, where he made history as America’s first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.

It was two years after Powell announced, after much soul-searching, he would not be answering the call from Republicans to run for president against Bill Clinton in 1996, and he was happily leading America’s Promise, a charity dedicated to helping the nation’s youth.