The Black History of the White House

by Clarence Lusane

  Two days earlier, on April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. In response to his murder, uprisings erupted in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas, and other cities and campuses around the nation, but not in Oakland. Civil rights leaders had little sway over angry black communities, particularly youth outraged by the killings. For some, groups that advocated a revolutionary solution to the problems of racism, poverty, war, and other concerns appeared to offer a constructive response to the state terrorist actions that were unfolding against black communities and their leaders. Socialist-advocating organizations, such as the Revolutionary Action Movement and League of Revolutionary Black Workers; and black nationalist groups, such as the Nation of Islam and United Slaves (US)—which was based in Los Angeles and an eventual rival to the Black Panthers—surged.74 Prior to going to prison on drug and rape charges, and while in prison, Cleaver moved in most of these circles, coming to the conclusion that only an armed struggle and violent overthrow of the U.S. state would bring black freedom. Like a number of the organic intellectuals of the period, Cleaver was never formally trained in political philosophy or theory but he managed to forge strong ideological frames that spoke to the political concerns, feelings, and experiences of millions, and he developed a passionate following.

  It was in this context that Cleaver was chosen by the Peace and Freedom Party to be their candidate in 1968. In a letter to the New York Times, the Eldridge Cleaver for President Fund wrote:

  Eldridge Cleaver can present the only electoral challenge to the discreditable politics of Nixon, Humphrey, and Wallace. We see the value of a Cleaver campaign as manifold. A well funded and well publicized campaign will illuminate the inadequacy of establishment politics. It will articulate demands that scarcely have an opportunity to arise within the establishment arena. It will build both critique and demands into a firm, broad, and permanent political formation.75

  Although Cleaver and the Peace and Freedom Party would win a few votes, he spent most of his time addressing his legal issues before fleeing the country toward the end of the year. He first went to Cuba and finally settled in Algeria. Although he started a Panther chapter there and continued to speak on behalf of the Panther Party, differences over strategy between him and Newton-Seale that had emerged in Oakland were growing and an antagonistic break erupted.

  Cleaver, over time, would travel from the extremes of the left to the extremes of the right. While in exile, he disavowed his previous revolutionary leftist ideas and embraced far-right conservative views.76 “After he returned to the United States in 1975,” writes John Kifner in the New York Times,

  Mr. Cleaver metamorphosed into variously a born-again Christian, a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Mormon, a crack cocaine addict, a designer of men’s trousers featuring a codpiece and even, finally, a Republican. . . . His political turnabout was such that, in the 1980’s, he demanded that the Berkeley City Council begin its meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance, a practice they had abandoned years before. “Shut up, Eldridge,” Mayor Gus Newport told the man who had once been the fiercest emblem of 1960’s radicalism. “Shut up or we’ll have you removed.”77

  When Cleaver passed on May Day in 1998, he was little remembered or embraced.

  Dick Gregory

  In the early 1960s, Dick Gregory had emerged as one of the nation’s top comedians after a triumphant stint at Chicago’s Playboy Club. Although it took him and other black comics years to break the color barrier at the major clubs and hotels, as the New York Times noted, he became a major headliner in the New York, San Francisco, and Las Vegas clubs, at one point earning $12,000 a week, and had been one of the first black guests on the Jack Parr show.78 His comedy was racially edgy without being overly polemical or panicky, and he came across more as a satirical commentator than a traditional comedian. He did not use profanity. He did not dance, sing, or clown around. In 1963, long before academics and rappers re-appropriated the controversy surrounding the word in the contemporary era, Gregory wrote a bestselling autobiography titled, Nigger. “I told my mama,” stated Gregory, “if she hears anybody shout ‘nigger,’ they’re just advertising my book.”79 Reportedly, the book sold seven million copies.80

  Gregory used his popularity and talents to help advance the struggle for civil rights. He befriended Martin Luther King Jr., SNCC, NAACP, and other leaders and organizations, and soon was on the frontlines and at the fundraisers with them in the struggle for political and equal rights. His activism went beyond civil rights and addressed issues ranging from peace, Native American rights, foreign policy, and health. Gregory was always outspoken and passionate.

  Prior to his run for president, Gregory ran against Richard Daley for mayor of Chicago. Daley’s hardline approach to dissent and those who spoke out against the brutal Chicago police department earned him the ire of the black community. Gregory lost but got a taste of the platform that one is given when running for political office. He ran as a write-in on the Freedom and Peace Party ticket and received 1.5 million votes, thirty times more than Eldridge Cleaver. In his 1968 book, Write Me In, he wrote, “I refuse to be the victim of having to choose between two lesser evils.”81 He outlined his platform in a wide range of areas. He argued that the U.S. Constitution should be amended to include as a qualification for president “a sensitivity to human need.”82 Understandably, given the growing opposition to the Vietnam War, he addressed the issue of war stating, “America speaks with pride of the fruits of democracy and advocates democracy for the rest of the world. Yet we go all over the world trying to force democracy upon people at gunpoint.”83 And, as president, he would propose “legislation to allow American taxpayers to bring suit against the federal government challenging the spending of a sizable portion of the national budget for a possibly illegal war.”84 He questioned the United States’ definition of itself as a democratic and inclusive nation writing, “I have a dream and a vision of seeing the Constitution of the United States implemented in full for the first time in American history.”85 In 1977, with researcher Mark Lane, he wrote a book about the Kennedy assassination, and later developed a number of conspiracy theories concerning the deaths of King, Robert Kennedy, and Michael Jackson, and controversies ranging from Michael Tyson and September 11, to other politicians, celebrities, and news events.86 His wide range of interests also included health products specifically aimed at addressing obesity and related health issues that disproportionately impact the black community.

  Dennis Serrette

  The election of Ronald Reagan as the fortieth president of the United States immediately sent alarms through the black community. Reagan opened his campaign after receiving the Republican nomination August 3, 1980 at the Neshoba Country Fair in Mississippi, just down the road from the town of Philadelphia infamous for its role in the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. In his remarks, Reagan stated that he believed in “states’ rights” and basically promised that he would attack and reverse the gains of the previous twenty years by the civil rights, black power, and peace and social justice movements. Uncomfortable with the response of the Democratic Party and passive resistance to accommodation, radical black voices called for an independent move away from the two parties. One non-black group that had the resources to put forth a black candidate was the New Alliance Party (NAP).

  Led by an obscure philosopher and psychotherapist, Fred Newman, the New Alliance Party worked hard to position itself to influence or dominate a number of grassroots movements since its formal inception in 1979. However, it quickly generated criticism from a wide range of progressive activists for its tactics and deceptions. One of the groups that it created was something called the Rainbow Alliance. On more than one occasion it was confused with Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition with which it did not have a relationship.

  The New York-based party ran labor activist Dennis Serrette as its presidential candidate in 1984. Serrette was a founding
member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and a vice president of a local chapter of the Communication Workers of America. In a very muted campaign, Serrette was able to gain only about 35,000 votes on 33 ballots with little visibility. Serrette left the New Alliance Party after the election with some bitter memories contending that the party was not progressive and had cult-like tendencies.

  Lenora Fulani

  In 1988 and 1992, the New Alliance Party ran Lenora Fulani as its presidential candidate. She had previously run under the NAP banner in New York for Lt. governor (1982), New York City mayor (1985), and governor (1986). By 1988, the New Alliance Party had become very skilled at raising funds and getting ballot access. In 1988, the Fulani/NAP campaign raised $2.6 million with $922,106.34 in matching funds. For a candidate to qualify for matching funds, the campaign must raise at least $5,000.00 in individual contributions from at least twenty states. By April 1992, she had secured over $1,033,000 in federal matching funds.87 Through a complex but legal process where campaign funds were spent with businesses affiliated or owned by NAP and then whose employees made donations to the campaign, the Fulani campaign was awash in cash.

  At the same time, Fulani made history in 1988 by being the first African American to be on the ballot in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. This was a remarkable achievement that few third parties or independents had ever accomplished. However, it reflected the technical and legal acumen of NAP’s lawyers rather than popular support for the candidate or her agenda. In 1988, she received 211,742 votes from across the country.88 Given the popularity of Jackson’s second run, Fulani ran under the theme “two roads are better than one” implying that she and Jackson were going to the same place but using different paths, and that if Jackson failed to win the Democratic Party nomination, then his supporters could vote for her in the general election.

  Fulani dropped out of the 1992 race after receiving only 402 votes in New Hampshire despite spending over $140,000.89 Fulani left the primaries because if she fell below a certain threshold in terms of votes received, she would become ineligible for matching funds in the general election, something she and the campaign were not willing to risk. In that election, she was on the ballot in thirty-two states and the District of Columbia. She sought to get on the party ticket of a number of third parties including California’s Peace and Freedom Party, Vermont’s Liberty Union Party, South Carolina’s United Citizens Party, and Illinois Solidarity Party. In the end, she received somewhere between 73,707 (New York Times figure) and 80,411 (NAP figure).90 In other words, although Fulani was better known in 1992, and had more financial resources, she received less than half of what she won in 1988.91

  Between 1992 and 2000, NAP sought to regroup after receiving much criticism from progressives about its problematic behavior. Somewhere along the way, NAP was disbanded, likely due to state and federal investigations tied to its fundraising schemes. It was still stunning to many, however, when Fulani and Newman came out in 2000 and endorsed well-known conservative and former Richard Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan who was seeking the Reform Party’s nomination for president. Fulani and Newman argued that they were building a left-center-right coalition. They had given up the fiction that she was leading a black-led movement to empower people of color, women, workers, and other marginalized communities. The Reform Party, which grew out of Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign, was their new political home. The battle for a progressive independent black politics would be left to others.

  Ron Daniels

  One of the most important gatherings in black politics occurred in March 1972, in Gary, Indiana. The National Black Political Convention was the most significant effort to bring together the disparate elements of the post-civil rights black political community. The tent cast was very wide. The Convention included every ideological position active in the black community, including nationalists, socialists, elected officials, Pan Africanists, and others.

  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.”92

  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.”93 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.94

  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.