|
First Black / African-American Presidential Candidate -
Shirley Chisholm:
In 1964, Chisholm ran and was elected to the New York State Legislature. She then ran as the Democratic candidate for New York's 12th District congressional seat and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1968, defeating Republican candidate James Farmer and becoming the first African-American woman elected to Congress.
As a freshman, Chisholm was assigned to the House Forestry Committee. Given her district, she felt the placement was a
waste of time and shocked many by demanding reassignment. She was placed on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Soon after, she voted for Hale Boggs as House Majority Leader over John Conyers. As a reward for her support, Boggs assigned her to the much-prized Education and Labor Committee; she was the third-highest ranking member when she retired.
1972 Campaign
Chisholm joined the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969, as one of its founding members. In 1972, Chisholm made a bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination,
receiving 152 delegate votes but ultimately losing the nomination to South Dakota Senator George McGovern. Chisholm's base of support was ethnically diverse and included the National Organization for Women. Among the volunteers who were inspired by her campaign was Barbara Lee, who would go on to become a congresswoman some 25 years later. (Currently, Barbara Lee has a couple of pieces of legislation that would honor Shirley Chisholm, including H Con Res 9, calling on the US Postal
Service to create a stamp honoring her, and HR 176, which would create a program to encourage educational exchanges between
the US and Caribbean nations.) Chisholm said she ran for the office "in spite of hopeless odds," "to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal
to accept the status quo."
Presidential Contender
In 1972 Chisholm made the decision that she would run for the highest office in the land — the presidency. In addition
to her interest in civil rights for blacks, women, and the poor, she spoke out about the judicial system in the United States,
police brutality, prison reform, gun control, politician dissent, drug abuse, and numerous other topics. She appeared on the
television show "Face the Nation" with three other democratic presidential candidates: George McGovern, Henry Jackson, and
Edmund Muskie. George McGovern won the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention, but Chisholm
captured ten percent of the delegates' votes. As a result of her candidacy, Chisholm was voted one of the ten most admired
women in the world.
Chisholm continued to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for another decade. As a member of the Black Caucus she
was able to watch black representation in the Congress grow and to welcome other black female congresswomen. Finally, in 1982,
she announced her retirement from the Congress.
1972 Democratic Tally of Delegates:
Chisholm competed in 14 out of the 21 Democratic state presidential primaries in 1972, winning 430,703 votes or
2.7 percent of the vote total.
Shirley Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed, a documentary film chronicling Chisholm's 1972 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, was aired on U.S. public television. Directed and produced by independent, black woman filmmaker Shola Lynch, the film was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. On, April 9, 2006, the film was announced as a winner of a Peabody Award.
Shirley Chisholm Unbought & Unbossed (PBS/POV)
Chisholm speech on the Equal Rights Amendment
Shirley Chisholm biography and video interview excerpts by The National Visionary Leadership Project
-
1984 Election
-
1988 Election
Jesse Jackson, July 1983.
Jesse Louis Jackson (born October 8, 1941) is an American politician, civil rights activist, and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, and is a prominent leader of the American Christian left.
1984 Election
In 1984, Jackson became the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for President of the United States, running as a Democrat.
In the primaries, Jackson, who had been written off by pundits as a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the
nomination, surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3.5 million votes and won five primaries, including Michigan.
As he had gained 21% of the popular vote but only 8% of delegates, he afterwards complained that he had been handicapped
by party rules. While Mondale (in the words of his aides) was determined to establish a precedent with his vice presidential
candidate by picking a woman or visible minority, Jackson criticized the screening process as a "p.r. parade of personalities".
He also mocked Mondale, saying that Hubert Humphrey was the "last significant politician out of the St. Paul–Minneapolis" area.[4]
1988 Election
Four years later, in 1988, Jackson once again offered himself as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
This time, his successes in the past made him a more credible candidate, and he was both better financed and better organized.
Although most people did not seem to believe that he had a serious chance at winning, Jackson once again exceeded
expectations as he more than doubled his previous results, capturing 6.9 million votes and winning eleven primaries. Briefly,
after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan primary, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination, as he surpassed all the other candidates in total
number of pledged delegates.
The Run for President
Jackson launched his first campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. His appeals for social programs,
voting rights, and affirmative action for those neglected by Reaganomics earned him strong showings in Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
New York, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C. He received 3.5 million votes, enough to secure a measure of power and respect
at the Democratic convention.
Jackson's 1988 campaign for the Democratic nomination was characterized by more organization and funding than his previous
attempt. With the experience he gained from 1984 and new resources, Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition surprised the media
and the political pundits. Initially written off as unelectable, Jackson emerged in the primary/caucus season as a serious
contender for the nomination. He attracted over 6.9 million votes--from urban blacks and Hispanics, poor rural whites,
farmers and factory workers, feminists and homosexuals, and from white progressives wanting to be part of a historic change.
In his platform he called for homes for the homeless, comparable worth and day care for working women, a higher minimum wage,
a commitment to the family farm, and an all-out war on drugs. "When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground" he told
delegates at the party convention on July 19, 1988, "we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs
and education and hope to our nation.
After early respectable losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, he won five southern states on Super Tuesday, March 8, 1988.
On March 12 he won the caucus in his birth state of South Carolina and three days later finished second in his home state
of Illinois. On March 26, 1988 Jackson stunned Dukakis and the rest of the nation in the Michigan caucus: Having won that
northern industrial state with 55 percent of the vote, Jackson became the Democratic front-runner. Dukakis later recaptured
the lead and the eventual nomination with strong showings in the second half of the primary season.
1984 Democratic Tally of Delegates:
In 1984 Jackson was the second African-American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for the Presidency. He garnered 3.5 million votes during the primaries, third behind Hart and Mondale.
1988 Democratic Tally of Delegates:
Michael Dukakis 2687
Jesse Jackson 1218
Joseph Biden 2
Richard Gephardt 2
Gary Hart 1
Lloyd Bentsen 1
Jesse Jackson's campaign believed, that since they had come a respectable second, they demanded the Vice presidential spot. Dukakis refused,
and gave the spot to Lloyd Bentsen.
2004 Election
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is a Pentecostal minister, political activist, civil rights activist. In 2004 Sharpton was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
(CNN) -- Controversial, conversational and confrontational, the Rev. Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. staged a colorful but
ultimately unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign on a platform of racial equality, education and health care rights.
The longtime activist ended his bid at the Democratic nomination on March 15, 2004, conceding defeat to Sen. John Kerry
but pledging to continue campaigning for his "urban agenda."
Born in 1954 in New York City, Sharpton rose from boy-preacher to political activist -- founding his signature organization,
the National Action Network -- in 1991. NAN raises money for inner city youth and fights drug abuse.
The son of a carpenter-contractor and a cleaning woman, Sharpton was raised in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood.
First preaching at age 4 and ordained as a Pentecostal minister at age 10, Sharpton was leading his own youth movement
by his teenage years. It was then he began rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Jesse Jackson and singer James Brown.
The 1980s defined Sharpton's public persona, as he transformed from preacher to civil rights advocate to activist, making
a name for himself as a spokesman for sometimes dubious causes.
Sharpton has run for elected office on multiple occasions. Sharpton ran for a United States Senate seat from New York in 1988, 1992, and 1994. In 1997, he ran for Mayor of New York City.
On January 5, 2003 Sharpton announced his candidacy for the 2004 presidential election as a member of the Democratic Party.
On March 15, 2004, Sharpton announced his endorsement of leading Democratic candidate John Kerry.
(CNN) -- The first time Carol Moseley Braun ran for a national office, her candidacy prompted people to
ask, "Who?"
On January 15, 2004 -- four days before the election cycle's first binding race, the Iowa caucuses -- when Moseley Braun
announced that she'd end her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. With her own campaign unable to gain momentum,
she threw her support behind the candidacy of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
When asked about her motivation to enter the race in the first place, Moseley Braun, who served as a U.S. ambassador to
New Zealand from 1999 to 2001, said in an interview with CNN, "I do this out of love of my country. I do this because I believe
that I have the capacity and the vision and the experience to ... restore not just prosperity and progress for our country,
but to get us on the right track as a nation."
Shirley Chisholm "Unprecedented"
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm of New York was the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972
(the 100-year anniversary of Woodhull's historic campaign). With a degree in sociology from Brooklyn College and a master's
degree in education from Columbia University, Chisholm was well-known to TV viewers throughout the county as the first African-American
candidate for a major party presidential nomination, the first African-American woman elected to Congress, a strong Vietnam
War opponent and a supporter of increasingly popular social programs. Starting with $44,000, Chisholm worked actively to raise
money to support her presidential campaign, but "donations were small and not nearly enough for a full-scale campaign." Nonetheless,
she waged a competitive campaign relying heavily on volunteers, including African-American supporters, women's rights advocates
and other liberal voters. Chisholm competed in 14 out of the 21 Democratic state presidential primaries in 1972, winning
430,703 votes or 2.7 percent of the vote total. Like Smith, she focused her efforts in states where she thought she had the
best chance of winning votes. She skipped the New Hampshire primary altogether and focused heavily in states with large populations
of African-Americans and liberal voters, including Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Michigan, and North
Carolina. Her strategy paid off exquisitely when she won the New Jersey Democratic primary with 51,433 votes or 66.9 percent
of the total votes cast. In addition, Chisholm finished third among five candidates in North Carolina (with 61,723 votes or
7.5 percent), fourth among nine candidates in California (with 157,435 votes or 4.4 percent), fourth among eleven candidates
in Tennessee (with 18,809 votes or 3.8 percent), fifth among 12 candidates in Massachusetts (with 22,398 votes or 3.6 percent)
and seventh among 10 candidates in Florida (with 43,989 votes or 3.4 percent). She won 9,198 votes in Wisconsin without even
making one campaign stop in the state and won additional votes in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon,
and New Mexico; however, no votes were recorded for Chisholm in New Hampshire, District of Columbia, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia,
Rhode Island, or South Dakota. Chisholm's presidential primary campaign showing proved strong enough to win her 152
delegate votes (approximately five percent) at the 1972 Democratic National Convention --an unprecedented historic victory
for women presidential candidates on the 100th anniversary of the campaign to elect women presidents.
Historical Notes:
JSTOR Journal of Negro History, The Pesidential Election of 1864
January 25, 1972
BROOKLYN ANNOUNCEMENT
Shirley Chisholm at podium waving and smiling, clapping
crowd.
I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States
of America. (Clapping.)
I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud.” Clapping.
I
am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that.”
Clapping.
I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests.” (Clapping. cheers).
I
stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend
to offer to you the tired and glib clichés, which for too long have been an accepted part of our political life. I am the
candidate of the people of America. And my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.
I
have always earnestly believed in the great potential of America. Our constitutional democracy will soon celebrate its 200th
anniversary, effective testimony, to the longevity to our cherished constitution and its unique bill of rights, which continues
to give to the world an inspirational message of freedom and liberty.
We Americans are a dynamic people…”(This
portion is missing from footage).
Fellow Americans, we have looked in vain to the Nixon administration for the courage,
the spirit, the character and the words to lift us. To bring out the best in us, to rekindle in each of us our faith in the
American dream. Yet all we have received in return is just another smooth exercise in political manipulation, deceit and deception,
callousness and indifference to our individual problems and a disgusting playing of devices politics. Pinning the young against
the old, labor against management, north against south, black against white. (Clapping.) The abiding concern of this administration
has been one of political expediency, rather than the needs of man’s nature.
The president has broken his promises
to us, and has therefore lost his claim to our trust and confidence in him. I cannot believe that this administration would
ever have been elected four years ago, if we had known then what we know today. But we are entering a new era, in which we
must, as Americans, must demand stature and size in our leadership — leadership, which is fresh, leadership, which is
open, and leadership, which is receptive to the problems of all Americans.
I have faith in the American people. I
believe that we are smart enough to correct our mistakes. I believe that we are intelligent enough to recognize the talent,
energy, and dedication, which all American including women and minorities have to offer. I know from my travels to the cities
and small towns of America that we have a vast potential, which can and must be put to constructive use in getting this great
nation together. I know that millions of Americans, from all walks of life agree with me that leadership does not mean putting
the ear to the ground, to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible,
building a strong and just society, which in its diversity and is noble in its quality of life.
I stand before you
today, to repudiate the ridiculous notion that the American people will not vote for qualified candidates, simply because
he is not right or because she is not a male. I do not believe that in 1972, the great majority of Americans will continue
to harbor such narrow and petty prejudice.
I am convinced that the American people are in a mood to disc the politics
and political personalities of the past.
I believe that they will show in 1972, and thereafter, that they intend to
make individual judgments on the merits of a particular candidate, based on that candidates intelligence, character, physical
ability, competence, integrity, and honesty.” Clapping. “It is, I feel the duty of responsible leaders in this
country to encourage and maximize, not to dismiss and minimize such judgment.”
Americans all over are demanding a
new sensibility, a new philosophy of government from Washington. Instead of sending spies to snoop on participants on Earth
Day, I would welcome the efforts of concerned citizens of all ages to stop the abuse of our environment. Instead of watching
a football game on television, while young people beg for the attention of their President, concerning our actions abroad,
I would encourage them to speak out, organize for peaceful change, and vote in November. Instead of blocking efforts to control
huge amounts of money given political candidates by the rich and the powerful, I would provide certain limits on such amounts
and encourage all people of this nation to contribute small sums to the candidates of their choice. Instead of calculating
political cost of this or that policy, and of weighing in favors of this or that group, depending on whether that group voted
for me in 1968, I would remind all Americans at this hour of the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘A house divided, cannot
stand.
“We Americans are all fellow countrymen. One day confronting the judgment of history in our country. We
are all God’s children and a bit of each of us is as precious as the will of the most powerful general or corporate
millionaire. Our will can create a new America in 1972, one where there is freedom from violence and war, at home and abroad,
where there is freedom from poverty and discrimination, where there exists at least a feeling, that we are making progress
and assuring for everyone medical care, employment, and decent housing. Where we more decisively clean up our streets, our
water, and our air. Where we work together, black and white, to rebuild our neighborhoods and to make our cities quiet, attractive,
and efficient and fundamentally where we live in the confidence that every man and every woman in America has at long last
the opportunity to become all that he was created of being, such as his ability.
In conclusion, all of you who share
this vision, from NY to CA, from WI to FL, are brothers and sisters on the road to national unity and a new America.”
Clapping. “Those of you who were locked outside of the convention hall in 1968, those of you who can now vote for the
first time, those of you who agree with me that the institutions of this country belong to all of the people who inhabit it.
Those of you who have been neglected, left out, ignored, forgotten, or shunned aside for whatever reason, give me your help
at this hour. Join me in an effort to reshape our society and regain control of our destiny as we go down the Chisholm Trail
for 1972. (Clapping. Cheering).
Source: 4 President.org (Chisholm72.net)
Shirley Chisholm
for President 1972 Campaign Brochure
‘I AM
RUNNING FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT
TO REPRESENT
ALL AMERICANS.’
UNBOSSED AND UNBOUGHT
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm has
announced her candidacy for the presidency. She has come to the decision to run without consulting any political bosses.
Her support comes from the millions
of Americans who shun the political clubhouses but believe that our political system can survive.
No special interest groups will
contribute to her campaign. So the success of her
candidacy depends upon people like
you.
The unbossed and the unbought.
A DYNAMIC FORCE FOR RESPONSIBLE
CHANGE
In the field of contenders for the
office of president of the United States there is one candidate that stands out as different. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
is that candidate.
The real difference that makes her
stand out is not that she is a woman, and a Black Woman at that, but that this dynamic woman is a catalyst that can bring
together the responsive women, the struggling minorities, the poor and the young who see in her a new hope for our system.
Combining a brilliant intellect
with a profound compassion, Mrs. Chisholm has blazed trails where others now follow.
THE CHISHOLM TRAIL
She brought the fight for women's
rights to Washington and was a sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Co-sponsored legislation to establish
a nationwide system of day care centers and supports a minimum annual income of $6,500 for a family of 4.
Supports withdrawal of all American
military influence from southeast Asia.
Co-sponsored legislation to repeal
the draft and establish a volunteer army.
Has voted against all money bills
for the military and will continue to do so until priorities are reversed.
She has voted against MIRV and ABM.
She is against aid to undemocratic
nations such as Greece and Spain.
Recognizing the profound danger
in such measures, Mrs. Chisholm has vigorously opposed infringements of liberties represented by a No Knock Law, preventive
detention, wiretapping and domestic spying.
Her active concern for veterans
has led her to push for jobs and benefits in this area.
Co-sponsored legislation to give
fuller tax benefits to the unmarried.
She is a leader in Consumer Protection.
She has fought for badly needed
Congressional reform, i.e., chairmanships based on ability, not age, and a mandatory retirement age (65).
To crush the illegal drug traffic,
Shirley Chisholm advocated ending foreign aid to nations who will not make an effort to stop the drug flow.
A WINNER FROM THE START
That a second-term congresswoman
should be so outspoken is remarkable.
That she should be able to effect
the changes she has is incredible.
But Shirley Chisholm is an incredible
American.
She has opened the door to the system
and with skill and courage has proven that our system is responsive to change.
A coalition has formed behind Shirley
Chisholm.
Groups that alone could hardly be
heard but together will make a mighty roar.
From the underdog in a three way
race for the 12th congressional district, Shirley Chisholm has risen to a greatly respected national figure in three years.
When given an assignment to sit
on the House Agriculture Committee Congresswoman Chisholm rebelled. There is very little agriculture in Brooklyn.
With the kind of courage that has
come to be characteristic of her, Shirley Chisholm took on the awesome House Rules Committee...and won.
She now sits on the House Education
and Labor Committee, an assignment that allows her to combine her interests and experience with the critical needs of her
constituents.
What she has won above all her other
victories, is the profound admiration of millions of Americans.
Millions of dedicated, hard-working
people who know that changes can be made.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm for
President
A dynamic force for responsible
change.
Source: 4president.org
STATEMENT BY SENATOR GEORGE McGOVERN (D.-S.D.)
ANNOUNCING CANDIDACY FOR THE 1972 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
January 18, 1971
Today I announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States. My wife, Eleanor and I have
come home to South Dakota to make this announcement because here we shaped our basic political faith; here we were given the
opportunity of public service. We are grateful to you for that opportunity and for your faith. We shall conduct
this new effort to the honor of South Dakota, the nation, and ourselves.
You, my fellow South Dakotans, have not always agreed with my position on public issues. That was
especially true in the early 1960’s when I stood almost alone in opposition to the sending of American troops to Southeast
Asia. Despite these differences, you have rewarded my willingness to state my convictions freely and honestly.
I anticipate the same fair hearing from citizens across the land. Thoughtful Americans understand that the highest patriotism
is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one’s country deep enough to call her to a higher standard.
I seek the presidency because I believe deeply in the American promise and can no longer accept the diminishing
of that promise. Our country began with a declaration of man’s rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.“ These liberating ideals gave such meaning and purpose to the new American nation that our forebears proclaimed,
“We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our Sacred honor.“
But today, our citizens no longer feel that they can shape their own lives in concert with their fellow
citizens. Beyond that is the loss of confidence in the truthfulness and common sense of our leaders. The most
painful new phrase in the American political vocabulary is “credibility gap” -- the gap between rhetoric and reality.
Put bluntly it means that people no longer believe what their leaders tell them.
In this decade when we are about to observe the 200th anniversary of our country, we
have a new opportunity to square the nation’s practices with its founding ideals. As we enter this period, we
must undertake a re-examination of our ideas, institutions and the actual conditions of our life which is as fundamental as
the discussions of the founding fathers two centuries ago.
A public figure today can perform no greater service than to lay bare the proven malfunctions of our society,
try honestly to confront our problems in all their complexity, and stimulate the search for solutions. This is my intention
in this campaign. And through my candidacy I intend to offer the American people a choice -- not between parties or
ideologies, not between liberal and conservative or right or left. The choice is whether our civilization can serve
the freedom and happiness of every citizen, or whether we will become the ever more helpless servants of a society we have
raised up to rule our lives.
The issue is, of course, a cloak for many problems. Almost everyone senses the danger and
almost no one can grasp its full dimensions or honestly claim to be possessed of full and sufficient answers. One thing,
however, is very clear. We will not be helped to understanding by leadership built on image-making or public manipulation;
by those who seek power by backroom deals, coalitions of self-interest, or by a continual effort to adjust their policies
and beliefs to every seeming shift in public sentiment.
The kind of campaign I intend to run will rest on candor and reason; it will be rooted not in the manipulation
of our fears and divisions, but in a national dialogue based on mutual respect and common hope. That kind of campaign
takes time. And that is why I am making this announcement far ahead of the traditional day. People can be frightened,
amazed and impressed in a moment. Reason and the communication of humane sentiment take longer. They are, however,
more lasting and more powerful. And I have no doubt that the American people will think long and soberly before making
the crucial decision of 1972. For my part, I make one pledge above all others -- to seek and speak the truth with all
the resources of mind and spirit I command.
There is no higher standard to which our nation can repair then to the ideals of our founding documents.
So as a candidate for the presidency, I shall see to call America home to these principles that gave us birth. I have
found no better blueprint for healing our troubled land than is contained in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights. But I find a nation drifting so far from those ideals as to almost lose its way.
But while our problems are great, certain steps can be taken to recover the confidence of the nation.
The greatness of our nation is not confined to the past, but beckons us to the future.
What other steps to future greatness?
First, we must have the courage to admit that however sincere our motives, we made a dreadful mistake in
trying to settle the affairs of the Vietnamese people with American troops and bombers. I have opposed that intervention
from the beginning, while our President and other presidential prospects were supporting it. There is now no way to
end it or to free our prisoners except to announce a definite, early date for the withdrawal of every of American soldier.
I make that pledge without reservation.
The tragedy of Vietnam does not mean that we are without vital interests abroad. Ironically, our obsession
with Saigon has led to the neglect of such truly essential interests as the goodwill of Latin America, the survival of Israel
and peace in the Middle East, and the opening of relations with China where one-third of the human race resides.
We are not likely to meet our responsibilities either at home or abroad until we remove the Southeast Asia
albatross from our necks. This is the first order of business.
At home, we are beset by a most serious economic recession. This is the clearest weakness of the present
administration -- a weakness marked by the worse inflation and the most severe unemployment in a decade. But that economic
crisis can be solved by a coherent effort to gear our resources to the real needs of our society.
Ending the drain of Southeast Asia would relieve part of the inflationary pressure. Basing our defense
budget on actual needs rather than imaginary fears would lead to further savings. Needless war and military waste contribute
to the economic crisis not only through inflation, but by the dissipation of labor and resources and in non-productive enterprise.
For too long the taxes of our citizens and revenues desperately needed by our cities and states
have been drawn into Washington and wasted on senseless war and unnecessary military gadgets. Each month, Washington
wastes enough on military folly to rebuild an American city or give new life to a rural area. A major test of the 1970’s
is the conversion of our economy from the excesses of war to the works of peace. I urgently call for conversion planning to
utilize the talent and resources surplus to our military-space requirements for modernizing our industrial plant and meeting
other peacetime needs.
There would be work for all if we set about the job of rebuilding our cities, renewing our rural
economy, reconstructing our transportation system, and reversing the dangerous pollution of our air, lakes and streams.
A program of tax and credit incentives, combined with family farm income supports, would not only revitalize
rural America but would reverse the flow of people into already congested cities.
These tasks call for an expanding economy, an adequate money supply, reasonable interest rates, and the
selective use of wage and price guidelines.
Beyond these essential economic questions, we must reshape our institutions, our technology, our bureaucracy,
and our political process so that they become our servants, not our masters.
We must search out and allay the anger of many working middle-income Americans burned by inequitable taxes,
unpleasant neighborhoods, and shoddy goods and services.
We still need to harness the full moral force of our nation to put an end to the most outrageous moral
failure of our history -- the lingering curse of racism. We must end, too, the plight of hunger, bad housing, and poor health
services.
We need most of all to answer the craving of the human spirit for a sense of belonging, of personal choice,
and of pride in family, job and country.
I offer a public record consistently devoted to these humane values.
I embark on this new journey fully aware both of its glories and of its difficulties. I am sustained by
the growing conviction that we have a unique opportunity to redeem this great but troubled land.
I believe the people of this country are tired of the old rhetoric, the unmet promise, the image makers,
and the practitioners of the expedient. The people are not centrist or liberal or conservative. Rather, they see a way out
of the wilderness. But if we who seek their trust, trust them; if we try to invoke the “better angels of our nature,”
the people will find their own way. We are the children of those who build a great and free nation. And we are no less than
that. We must now decide whether our courage and imagination are equal to our talents. If they are, as I believe, then future
generations will continue to love America, not simply because it is theirs, but for what it has become -- for what, indeed,
we have made.
Sources: 4President.org
McGovern for President Press Release
George S. McGovern
Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
Other Political Events:
The Gary Declaration: National Black Policical Convention 1972,(BlackPast.org.)
National Black Political Convention (Indiana Historical Society)
MILESTONES: Blacks Define Themselves1964-1972: National Black Political Convention 1972 (American Experience)
Current Events:
National Black Agenda Convention 2004: Boston
|
 |
|
Additional Information:
Shirley Chisholm Quotations:
• I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and
having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society
it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman,
black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
• Of my two "handicaps" being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.
• My God, what do we want? What does any human being want? Take away an accident of pigmentation of a thin layer
of our outer skin and there is no difference between me and anyone else. All we want is for that trivial difference to make
no difference.
• Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.
• We Americans have a chance to become someday a nation in which all racial stocks and classes can exist in their
own selfhoods, but meet on a basis of respect and equality and live together, socially, economically, and politically.
• In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing - antihumanism.
• The United States was said not to be ready to elect a Catholic to the Presidency when Al Smith ran in the 1920's.
But Smith's nomination may have helped pave the way for the successful campaign John F. Kennedy waged in 1960. Who can tell?
What I hope most is that now there will be others who will feel themselves as capable of running for high political office
as any wealthy, good-looking white male.
• At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.
• I am, was, and always will be a catalyst for change.
• There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter.
Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.
• One distressing thing is the way men react to women who assert their equality: their ultimate weapon is to call
them unfeminine. They think she is anti-male; they even whisper that she's probably a lesbian.
• ... rhetoric never won a revolution yet.
• Prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take years to eliminate it. But it is doomed
because, slowly, white America is beginning to admit that it exists. Prejudice against women is still acceptable. There is
very little understanding yet of the immorality involved in double pay scales and the classification of most of the better
jobs as "for men only." (1969)
• Tremendous amounts of talent are being lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.
• Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth. (attributed -- also attributed to Marian
Wright Edelman)
• I am not antiwhite, because I understand that white people, like black ones, are victims of a racist society. They
are products of their time and place.
• The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: It's a girl.
• When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.
• It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are
more television addicts, more baseball and football addicts, more movie addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this
country than there are narcotics addicts.
Jesse Jackson Quotes:
I Am - Somebody is a poem by Reverend Jesse Jackson, which he recited on Sesame Street in 1971. This inspirational free verse poem was unparalleled with anything ever attempted on children's television in content and delivery, and to an extent still
is. The poem fulfilled Sesame Street 's initial curriculum for serving under-privileged city children, as well as promoting
cultural understanding.
A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and
men die daily, but good deeds live forever.
America is not
a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.
Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will
get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.
Capital punishment
turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.
Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.
From seeds of his body blossomed the flower that liberated a people and touched the soul of a nation.
George Bush has met more foreign heads of state than I have. But a substantial
number of them were dead.
Great things happen in small places.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.
Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.
I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against
the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.
I cast my bread on the waters long ago. Now it's time for you to send it back to me - toasted and buttered
on both sides.
I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all
I can say is that we haven't melted.
I know they are all
environmentalists. I heard a lot of my speeches recycled.
If
there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to
my head and not to my heart.
In politics, an organized minority
is a political majority.
Keep hope alive!
Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected
and the despised.
Never look down on anybody unless you're
helping them up.
No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams
must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender
your dreams.
Our dreams must be stronger than our memories.
We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.
Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black and white-and we're all precious
in God's sight.
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change
things.
Today's students can put dope in their veins
or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude
but their attitude that will determine their altitude.
We
must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up.
We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.
When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent
to walk through.
When we're unemployed, we're called
lazy; when the whites are unemployed it's called a depression.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
