African-American candidates for President of the United States
In those years, the candidates for the position and vice presidency were chosen by state representatives voting at the nominating convention.
Douglass was "never a contender" for the presidency in 1888 and had previously received a roll call vote in 1848 for a minor political party's presidential nomination.
[3] In 1904 the executive committee of the newly formed National Negro Liberty Party asked "Judge" Taylor to be their candidate for the office of president of the United States.
It was one of several leagues or assemblies that had formed at the end of the century to support bills working their way through the United States Congress to grant pensions to former slaves.
In 1903 it added opposition to lynching, Jim Crow laws, disfranchisement, anti-imperialism, and scientific racism to its agenda, broadening its appeal to Black voters in Northern and Midwestern states.
In 1904 the Council moved its headquarters from Arkansas to Chicago, Illinois, and reorganized as the National Negro Civil Liberty Party.
Its platform included planks that dealt with disfranchisement, insufficient career opportunities for Blacks in the United States military, imperialism, public ownership of railroads, “self-government” for the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), lynching and pensions for ex-slaves.
The 37-year-old Payne, who later founded an industrial school in Puerto Rico, had served as a Cabin Steward on the USS Dixie during the Spanish–American War.
[7][8] After convention delegates had left St. Louis, Scott was arrested and jailed for having failed to pay a fine imposed in 1901.
[10] At the 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago, Channing E. Phillips, a minister and civil rights leader, was placed in nomination for President of the United States.
His mother, Ann Dunham (1942–1995), was born in Wichita, Kansas; she was mostly of English descent,[19] with some German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh ancestry.
Obama emerged as a serious contender for the nomination[26] and was the first African American to win the designation of a major party in a United States presidential election.
[31] In early 2019, U.S. senators Kamala Harris[a][32][33][34][35][36][37] and Cory Booker declared their presidential campaigns for the 2020 Democratic nomination within weeks of each other.
The results of African-American presidential campaigns had ranged from winning the presidency to dropping out before primary voting began.
However, all of the candidates have had a political impact by making sure their voices were a part of the national debate and gaining some attention from their party's establishment.
His 1984 campaign sought to bring together a “Rainbow Coalition” of African Americans, Hispanics, the poor, the elderly, family farmers, and women that would challenge the conservative policies of President Ronald Reagan.
[48] Jackson's campaign won him a speaking slot at the 1984 Democratic Convention, which provided a national platform for him to present his agenda.
[47] In his 1988 campaign, Jackson increased his support to 6.9 million primary votes and won 9 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Moseley Braun, having already made history as the only African American woman elected to the United States Senate became the most visible female candidate to run for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
“Now is the time for Democrats to renew hope that we will leave [the American Dream] for the next generation in even better shape than we found it,” Moseley Braun said, “And a woman can lead the way.”[50] Though Moseley Braun ended her campaign in January 2004, she earned a speaking slot at the Democratic Convention in Boston where she had a national platform to advocate for equal rights.
In describing why he was running, Sharpton said, “ I think if we stand up for workers’ rights, stand up for a peace plan worldwide, stand up for the constitutional rights of every American, those people will come back [to the Democratic Party], and those people are the majority of Americans.”[52] Like Moseley Braun, Sharpton's campaign allowed him to participate in the early nationally televised Democratic Party primary debates and earned him a speaking slot at the 2004 Democratic Convention, the same year future president Barack Obama gained national attention for his convention speech.
On the Republican side, Keyes first ran for the nomination in 1996 seeking to get his party to focus on social issues such as abortion.
