Despite what you read, Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) was not in 1972 the first African-American candidate to run for president of the United States. In 1904, George Edwin Taylor — often forgotten in the discussion of black American political pioneers — ran for president as the candidate of the National Negro Liberty Party, sometimes known as the National Liberty Party. George Edwin Taylor - son of a slave, a journalist, labor leader, farmer, policeman, politician, seller of potions and elixirs - did indeed move up in Jacksonville's black society, establishing himself as a prominent figure in the community before he died in 1925, 13 years after his arrival. How much he mentioned his run for president, or how much it was brought up to him in his new home, is lost to history. What is known is that, in 1904, Taylor, with the backing of the newly formed National Liberty Party, ran for U.S. president against incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt and Democrat Alton B. Parker. It did not go well. The underfunded party couldn't get him on most state ballots and he received fewer than 2,000 votes nationwide, according to historian David Brodnax of Trinity Christian College in Illinois. In the press, Taylor was largely ignored or ridiculed. One reason, Brodnax noted: "He was a black man running on a third-party ticket in a country that had little interest in black men or third parties." Yet Taylor is a notable figure in American politics - quite likely the first African-American to run for the office with the backing of a national political party, Brodnax said. Though he knew his campaign would fail, he did not embark on it lightly, said Bruce L. Mouser, Taylor's biographer and a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. #blackhistorymonth #Georgeedwintaylor #firstafricanamericanpresidentialcanindate https://www.instagram.com/p/CLXVX4cg5Za/?igshid=moa1nagsi9ld
