VP candidate for Committee for the Write-in Vote for Dick Gregory and Mark Lane (1968)
VP candidate for New Party (1968)
VP candidate for New Politics Party (1968)
VP candidate for Citizens for Independent Political Action (1968)
VP candidate for Freedom and Peace Party (1968)
VP candidate for Peace and Freedom Party (1968)
Running mate with nominee: Dick Gregory (1932-2017)
Popular vote: 37,369 (0.05%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
After his unsuccessful run for Mayor of Chicago in 1967 as an independent, comedian and activist Dick Gregory wanted another shot at elected office and decided to run for President as an outsider. As he said in an interview during the 1968 campaign, "I feel the two-party system is obsolete. The two-party system is so corrupt and immoral that it cannot solve the problems confronting the masses of people in this country. I did agree to accept the nomination in various states from independent organizations who had already had a position on the ballot and this why I have accepted."
Gregory ran in several states as a write-in or sometimes showed up on the ballot itself, under the banner of multiple political parties, with various running mates. No matter what the platform of the party he was using as a vehicle, Dick Gregory was still Dick Gregory. Mark Lane was Gregory's main Vice-Presidential team partner in this election.
In 1968 Lane was best known as a Leftist activist and attorney who had been arrested at a segregation protest in the South while still holding an elected office of New York Assemblyman. He also was famous for being one of the earliest of the JFK assassination conspiracy proponents and his book Rush to Judgment was a best-seller. A controversial figure throughout his entire career before and after 1968, he was a VP choice guaranteed to attract attention which, according to his critics, was something he craved.
When the newly created Peace and Freedom Party held their first chaotic convention, Dick Gregory was outvoted in the nomination process by Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver. In New York, as a power struggle emerged between the Old and New Left, a much more organized and apparently better funded rival Freedom and Peace Party was founded in June 1968. Like the Progressive Party of 1948-1952, there was a lot of chatter from both the FBI and from some on the Left that the FPP was a child of the Communist Party USA. There was no doubt CPUSA was one of the forces involved, but to what degree remains a matter of debate. 20 of the 324 delegates were members of the CPUSA.
The Freedom and Peace Party platform included: withdraw from the Vietnam War, end US support for Right-wing dictators, independence for Puerto Rico, recognize the People's Republic of China, nationalize the drug industry, end the draft, mandate a $2.00 state minimum wage, amnesty for all political prisoners including draft resisters, universal health insurance, affirmative action-type policies, and free higher education.
The FPP nominated Dr. Benjamin Spock for President and Coretta Scott King for VP. Both of them quickly withdrew their names from consideration. In a short time the names of Dick Gregory and Mark Lane were substituted.
New York was the only state where Gregory/Lane ran as Freedom and Peace Party candidates. In Colorado they were on the ballot as part of the New Party and in Pennsylvania they were registered for the ballot under the Peace and Freedom Party-- before Cleaver was nominated-- apparently due to filing deadlines.
There were also official Gregory/Lane write-in efforts in a few states. In California they were promoted by the Committee for the Write-in Vote for Dick Gregory and Mark Lane. The New Politics Party in Indiana found themselves with a blank slate when their proposed Eugene McCarthy/John Lindsay ticket turned them down, so they replaced them with Gregory/Lane. In Ohio they were supported by the Citizens for Independent Political Action.
It was Gregory as the comedian that landed him in the most trouble. The government was seriously disturbed when he issued campaign literature resembling $1 bills with his face adorning the currency and Lane's signature looking quite official. It looked real enough that he very nearly landed in jail. But Gregory knew no one could take it too seriously, "Everyone knows a black man will never be on a US bill."
A member of the Socialist Workers Party observed that Gregory was living in the moment and more interested in providing a venue for a protest vote in this pivotal period of political realignment than he was in creating a lasting third party movement. Indeed, the Freedom and Peace Party evaporated within a short time after the election.
The Gregory campaign placed 5th nationally (outpolling Cleaver) with 47,149 popular votes (0.06%), 37,369 of those votes were with Lane on the ticket and most of that support came from New York. The Gregory/Lane result: New York 0.36%, Colorado 0.17%, Pennsylvania 0.16%, California 0.04%, Ohio 0.01%, Indiana 0.00%. Although the ticket ran under various party names it would be the Freedom and Peace Party that future list-makers would tie to them.
Election history:
1961-1963 - New York State Assembly (Democratic)
1962 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
Other occupations: soldier (US Army), attorney, author
Buried: ?
Notes:
"Richard Nixon is living in the White House today because of what happened that night in Chicago. Hubert Humphrey lost that election by a handful of votes -- mine among them -- and if I had to do it again I would still vote for Dick Gregory."--Hunter S. Thompson
Lane later co-authored, with Gregory, the book Code Name Zorro about the MLK assassination.
Was present and hiding in the jungle during the 1978 Jonestown mass suicide.
