The Black History of the White House (46 page)

The central objective of the meeting was to forge an independent politics that was not tied or beholden to either of the major parities or any of the third parties. This goal was reflected in the leadership of the National Black Political Assembly (NBPA) that included Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, black radical Amiri Baraka, and Rep. Charles Diggs. More than 12,000 attended the Assembly. The politics of the gathering, captured in the “Gary Declaration,” were ideologically to the left. The Declaration stated, “A Black political convention, indeed all truly Black politics, must begin from this truth: The American system does not work for the masses of our people, and it cannot be made to work without radical, fundamental changes. . . . The challenge is thrown to us here in Gary. It is the challenge to consolidate and organize our own Black role as the vanguard in the struggle for a new society.”
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Two issues that were raised that would manifest a number of years later were the call for a black independent political party, and the suggestion of a black candidate for the presidency. Although he had little intention of really supporting the idea in practice, Jesse Jackson stated, “Without the option of a black political party, we are doomed to remain in the hip pocket of the Democratic Party and the rumble seat of the Republican Party.”
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Although the idea of a future black presidential run was floated, the assemblage ignored and dismissed the black candidate who was running at that moment: Rep. Shirley Chisholm.

The thrust for unity, however, was more or less undermined even before the assembly began. A number of elected officials had already or were about to make commitments to one or other of the Democratic candidates for president. There were also political differences over issues such as busing and international support for the Palestinians. Despite the defection of many of the black elected officials, the NBPA would continue for the next eight years under the leadership of Ohio activist Ron Daniels. Daniels would also play a decisive role in the formation of the National Black Independent Political Party (NBIPP). At the 1980 New Orleans meeting of the NBPA, a resolution to launch an independent black party within 100 days was passed and the NBPA more or less faded into the effort to build NBIPP. The politics of NBIPP were even more chaotic than those of the organization that spawned it. NBIPP struggled over issues of who was qualified to be a member to how to resolve the lack of support by the black community for independent campaigns. The party faced its biggest dilemma in 1984 when Jackson decided to run for president within the Democratic Party and garnered overwhelming support from African Americans.

Though still an unyielding advocate for independent politics, by 1988, Daniels had become Executive Director for the
National Rainbow Coalition. His main objective in that position was to keep the NRC alive and not let it be subsumed into the Jackson campaign for the presidency. Unsuccessful in that aim, and given the decisions made by Jackson to tie his political future to the Democratic Party, he left the NRC after the 1988 race. Emulating somewhat the NRC-Jackson Campaign model, Daniels started another organization, the Campaign for a New Tomorrow, and began to contemplate his own run as an independent candidate for president in the 1992 elections. On October 14, 1991, he announced his candidacy and that of his vice presidential running mate Native American activist Asiba Tupahache. In his statement, he said:

While this nation prepares to settle in for yet another season of politics as usual, I believe that the progressive movement should launch a massive human rights crusade to place America's injustices against African people, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and poor and working people before the world. As part of that crusade, an Independent presidential campaign should be seen as a vehicle to intensify the fight for power. Those who have been the historical victims of a racist and exploitative system must amass the power to govern and create a new society.
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Daniels received widespread support from many on the left as well as from long-time activists in the independent politics movement. However, he was unable to generate the resources necessary to really run a nationwide campaign with a paid staff and advertising in big media. As a result, he lacked the reach to bring out voters in his behalf. With Bill Clinton as the Democratic Party's standard bearer in that election, the centrist thrust of the party's politics created some political space for Daniels'
progressive platform of cuts in the defense budget, a quality education for all, a peace driven foreign policy, a socially-responsible economy with sustainable development, enactment of a domestic Marshall Plan, and elimination of racism and all forms of discrimination. Despite the fact that many progressives agreed with Daniels' politics, few felt that the risk of another four years of Bush was worth it, even if that meant getting Clinton.

Cynthia McKinney

In addition to Keyes and Obama, there was another black candidate for the presidency in the 2008 elections: former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney. She first came to Congress in 1992 from Georgia as a member of the group of blacks elected to Congress from the South who benefited from the 1990 redrawing of congressional districts. She early on distinguished herself as a radical and became a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She lost her seat in 2002 after she and other black Southern representatives were targeted for defeat by conservative forces in Georgia. She won her seat back in 2004, but then lost it again in 2006, in part due to a widely publicized confrontation with a Capitol Hill police officer. As was the experience of other black representatives, a white police officer did not recognize her as a member of Congress. The officer accused her of hitting him. The controversy gave ammunition to her opponents who argued that her politics and demeanor did not represent her constituents.

McKinney was one of the early advocates for an alternative commission to investigate the September 11 attacks. She argued that a cover-up was taking place and the American public was not being told the truth about what happened. While in Congress, she also called for the impeachment of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

After leaving Congress, she also left the Democratic Party. She joined the Green Party and became their candidate for president in the 2008 elections. The party had attempted to recruit her in 2000 and 2004 but she declined their earlier overtures. Her running mate was Latino hip-hop artist and activist, Rosa Clemente. Theirs was the first women-of-color presidential and vice presidential ticket in U.S. history. Their platform included calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, protection of civil liberties, impeachment of Bush and Cheney, creating a Department of Peace, releasing currently classified information on the Kennedy and King assassinations and September 11, and redirecting the national budget to address social needs.

Her critique was of both major parties. As she stated in her acceptance speech, “In 2008, after two stolen Presidential elections and eight years of George W. Bush, and at least two years of Democratic Party complicity, the racket is about war crimes, torture, crimes against the peace; the racket is about crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the American people, and crimes against the global community.” In that same speech, without speaking his name, she also took a swipe at then-candidate Obama stating, “The Democratic presumptive nominee wants to increase the size of the overused military and the budget for an already-bloated and wasteful Pentagon. I am the only candidate who has consistently voted against the Pentagon budget, voted against the war in Iraq, and I voted against the bills that funded it.”
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For a party that has been mostly white, the selection of McKinney and Clemente was a breakthrough in terms of race. Unfortunately, it happened in a year when black votes and two-thirds of Latino voters were supporting an African American candidate who genuinely had a chance of winning the presidency. Green Party members of all colors were flocking to the Obama camp. Unlike some of
her supporters, McKinney was careful to frame her critique of Obama as an overall criticism of Democratic Party politics.

One of the key goals of the campaign was to win five percent of the total vote, which would allow the Green Party a number of benefits in terms of ballot and federal matching-funds. The Greens have around 200 elected officials around the country, mostly elected at the local level such as school boards and city councils, but like all third parties have an extremely difficult time getting on the ballot in many states. In the 2008 elections, the party did not achieve its goal. On November 4, McKinney received 161,603 votes, about 1 percent of the total.

Two Who Should Have Run: King and Powell

Finally, it is relevant to mention two individuals who were promoted and would have presented serious campaigns if they had run for president. In 1968, there were calls for Martin Luther King Jr. to run for president. King's leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and his April 4, 1967 speech opposing the Vietnam War made him an attractive potential candidate for progressives. His sharp rebuke of the war was a political earthquake given the prevailing view at the time that civil rights leaders should stay out of foreign affairs. King demanded that President Johnson halt the bombings, declare a unilateral ceasefire, get out of Laos and Thailand, bring the North Vietnamese into the peace negotiations, and set a deadline for the removal of all foreign troops out of Vietnam.
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That speech got the attention of many in the peace and anti-war movement. On April 15, King spoke at an anti-war rally at the United Nations that brought out over 125,000. In addition to King, other speakers included pediatrician and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock, singer-activist Harry Belafonte, former SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael, CORE leader Floyd McKissick, and William Pepper of
the National Conference for New Politics. In his remarks, after King had spoken and chanted “stop the bombing, stop the bombing,” Pepper suggested that the civil rights leader become a candidate for president in 1968. Spock and other peace leaders joined the effort to get King to run.
The Nation
magazine and Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas were among those who urged King to run as a third party candidate. According to Peter John Ling, King seriously considered running.
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Speculation about a King candidacy was a nightmare for the Johnson administration and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI who were tracking his every personal and political move. Such a step by King would bring together the civil rights and anti-war movements. FBI wiretaps kept the agency and a worried administration informed about King's deliberations.

However, King demurred almost from the first suggestion that he run. He told one of his assistants, “I need to be in the position of being my own man,” and a Boston crowd, “I have never had any political ambitions, and it is strange territory for me to consider. I have never thought of myself moving into the presidential arena.”
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As the days passed, King became more resolute in his decision not to join the race. On April 25, he met with reporters and read a statement, “I have come to think of my role as one which operates outside the realm of partisan politics. I have no interest in any political candidacy and I am issuing this statement to remove doubts about my position on this subject.”
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In an intriguing take on King's presidential possibility, in 1997 the
Discovery Channel
produced a fictional documentary that elaborated on the notion that King had not been assassinated and went on to become president. In the film, King was able to push through what is termed “the most radical legislation since Roosevelt's ‘New Deal' program,” NASA selected black astronauts to travel into space, and the doll Barbie had black
friends. Racial tensions eased around the nation and a new era of progressivism was begun.
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Colin Powell

In the early 1990s, there were efforts to draft Colin Powell to run for president. The popular ex-general was courted by both Democratic and Republican leaders. He had worked in the administrations of both parties but was mostly associated with the Republican Party. He made his affiliation clear when on November 8, 1995, he announced both that he would not run for the presidency and that he had joined the Republican Party.
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There was an assumption that Powell's popularity across party and racial lines would translate into electability. In reality, he would have faced difficulty finding support from both the black community and the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. Though frustration with the Democratic Party was high and growing among many blacks, it was due to what many felt was the party's drift to the political right. It was likely that whatever racial pride may have surfaced with a credible run by Powell, his Republican affiliation was certain to lose him a substantial amount of black votes unless he qualitatively broke from the Republican agenda.

Powell's views on race were shaped by his experiences as a second-generation Jamaican-immigrant child in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. In his mixed raced, multi-national neighborhood, he states that he had “no such sense” of a black racial identity.
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While many blacks from the Caribbean and Africa identify with the struggles and goals of black Americans, many do not. While Powell grew to become more appreciative of the black American effort for equality, inclusion, and justice, his views on race issues have been mostly moderate. He supported affirmative action but tended to reject black-only approaches
to addressing black community issues. He recognized the need for government intervention but leans much more toward self-help solutions. This posture would have made it very difficult for him to receive support from most black leaders and many others in the black community.
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