16th day of #BlackHistoryMonth2020 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫 - #HappyPresidentsDay Born August 4th,1857 in Little Rock, AR Despite what you read in some history books — such as the Biographical Dictionary of Congressional Women and 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘵 @𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 — Rep. Shirley Chisholm was not in 1972 the first #AfricanAmerican candidate to run for president of the United States. In 1904, #GeorgeEdwinTaylor — often forgotten in the discussion of black American political pioneers — ran for president as the candidate of the #NationalNegroLibertyParty, sometimes known as the #NationalLibertyParty. 𝐒𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐟 𝐀 𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞 A journalist by trade, Taylor who lived in Iowa gained distinction, according to the Tacoma, Wa., Times on Aug. 17, 1904, as a leader in the Republican national convention of 1892, "to which he was an alternate delegate-at-large from his state. The next campaign he was delegate-at-large to the Democratic convention." In 1904, 36 states sent representatives to the Liberty Party convention. According to the Times, the party denounced the #Democrats' disenfranchisement of black Americans. It questioned Theodore Roosevelt's fidelity to African-Americans and it stood for "unqualified enforcement of the constitution," reparations for ex-slaves and independence for the Philippines. Given the fact that Taylor received fewer than 2,000 votes when he ran for president in 1904, it is hard to call him "the right man at the right time." Another way to look at this is to ask why he in particular became the first African American to run for president; why did he do what Frederick Douglass, T. Thomas Fortune, Blanche K. Bruce, and other leading black politicians before him could or would not. Part of the irony of the situation is that Taylor's marginal status may have made him more likely to be first. #BlackHistoryMonth #presidentalcandidates #FirstBlack #AmericanCulture #NPR #ConnectingCultures #AmericanHistory #everythangculture #podcast #follow #share #listen (at Seattle, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8sQDGogwHN/?igshid=1gfwwrkus8gnp
