Mark Lane

Mark Lane, February 24, 1927 (New York, NY) – May 10, 2016 (Charlottesville, Va.)

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 As he said in an interview during the 1968 campaign, "I feel the two-party system is obsolete.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.

Coretta Scott King

 Nov. 1968. Ohio

Coretta Scott King, April 27, 1927 (Heiberger, Ala.) – January 30, 2006 (Rosarito Beach, Mexico)

VP candidate for McCarthy Committee (1968)
VP candidate for Coalition for McCarthy Party (1968)

Running mate with nominee: Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 1968 an obscure political figure, US Sen. Eugene McCarthy (Minn.), challenged incumbent President Johnson in the Democratic primaries. McCarthy's anti-war stance energized a whole new generation of young activists who were really in the first wave of voters to have grown up entirely in the shadow of the atomic/nuclear mushroom cloud and thus felt a visceral sense of urgency the older generations for the most part failed to grasp.

McCarthy became a David to Johnson's Goliath, and within a short time LBJ decided to drop out of the race, opening it up for Sen. Robert Kennedy and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. McCarthy soon found himself outspent and outflanked by the better known candidates and was marginalized to the far Left by the Democratic Party establishment. After the Party convention  McCarthy waited until the very last week of the campaign to finally give a lukewarm endorsement to Humphrey.

In the meantime, McCarthy's followers were not so easily defeated. The 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago was a bloody affair and Humphrey was seen as being too closely tied to the unpopular LBJ. McCarthy's followers were prepared to go all the way to November, attempting to get his name on the ballot in several states as a "fourth party" since George Wallace already had the primo "third party" position.

By early September 1968 it was too late for McCarthy's followers to place him on the ballot in many states, so energetic write-in campaigns were waged. In Georgia, Oregon, and Rhode Island groups sprang up to work for McCarthy. In Michigan there was the McCarthy Write-In Committee, Massachusetts had three groups pushing for the Senator-- Citizens for Participation Politics, Conference for New Political Action, and the Flag Party-- and in New York there was the Coalition for Independent Candidacy (aka Coalition Party). As far as I could ascertain, none of the above proposals included a running mate.

McCarthy had various running mates and different party banners in other states. The most coordinated effort, such as it was, concerned the New Party, formed chiefly by Marcus Raskin, co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies. "If we cannot force a realignment of political structures," said Raskin, "There will be mass violence."

But in 1968 "mass violence" had already been gripping the country with the two highest profile victims being Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

It is difficult to say if the New Party operated under variant names across the country.

McCarthy himself disavowed this fourth party activity and took steps to keep his name off the November ballot. Raskin and other McCarthy followers didn't care.

Newly widowed, Coretta Scott King was starting a new chapter in life where she would grow as a civil rights leader in her own right. Some had political designs for her. Her name was among those placed in nomination for US President in the Peace and Freedom Party, and in Ohio and Iowa she was nominated to be on Eugene McCarthy's ticket as a Vice-Presidential choice.

A group in Iowa called the Coalition for McCarthy Party held a convention with a couple hundred people and nominated King as the running mate. Both and King and McCarthy made swift requests to be removed from the ballot.

Earlier in the year King had also been nominated by the Freedom and Peace Party to be a running mate with Dr. Benjamin Spock. Both of them declined and Dick Gregory with Mark Lane were substituted.

In Ohio a group called the McCarthy Committee secured a place on the ballot for the ticket. McCarthy and King were rather slow in informing the Ohio Secretary of State about their desire to be removed from consideration, so the Electors for McCarthy/King found themselves cast adrift when it was announced no write-ins for this ticket would be counted. That didn't stop their supporters from continuing to use their names as a protest vote.

The McCarthy/King ticket certainly had some write-in votes in Iowa and Ohio, but the exact number is not known.

Election history:
1968 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: singer, activist, author

Buried: Martin Luther King Jr. Center (Atlanta, Ga.)

Notes:
Once worked as a babysitter caring for future actor John Lithgow.

Richard Claxton Gregory

Dick Gregory and Eugene McCarthy, Chicago, August 1968

Richard Claxton Gregory, October 12, 1932 (St. Louis, Mo.) – August 19, 2017 (Washington, DC)

VP candidate for New Party (1968)

Running mate with nominee: Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 1968 an obscure political figure, US Sen. Eugene McCarthy (Minn.), challenged incumbent President Johnson in the Democratic primaries. McCarthy's anti-war stance energized a whole new generation of young activists who were really in the first wave of voters to have grown up entirely in the shadow of the atomic/nuclear mushroom cloud and thus felt a visceral sense of urgency the older generations for the most part failed to grasp.

McCarthy became a David to Johnson's Goliath, and within a short time LBJ decided to drop out of the race, opening it up for Sen. Robert Kennedy and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. McCarthy soon found himself outspent and outflanked by the better known candidates and was marginalized to the far Left by the Democratic Party establishment. After the Party convention  McCarthy waited until the very last week of the campaign to finally give a lukewarm endorsement to Humphrey.

In the meantime, McCarthy's followers were not so easily defeated. The 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago was a bloody affair and Humphrey was seen as being too closely tied to the unpopular LBJ. McCarthy's followers were prepared to go all the way to November, attempting to get his name on the ballot in several states as a "fourth party" since George Wallace already had the primo "third party" position.

By early September 1968 it was too late for McCarthy's followers to place him on the ballot in many states, so energetic write-in campaigns were waged. In Georgia, Oregon, and Rhode Island groups sprang up to work for McCarthy. In Michigan there was the McCarthy Write-In Committee, Massachusetts had three groups pushing for the Senator-- Citizens for Participation Politics, Conference for New Political Action, and the Flag Party-- and in New York there was the Coalition for Independent Candidacy (aka Coalition Party). As far as I could ascertain, none of the above proposals included a running mate.

McCarthy had various running mates and different party banners in other states. The most coordinated effort, such as it was, concerned the New Party, formed chiefy by Marcus Raskin, co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies. "If we cannot force a realignment of political structures," said Raskin, "There will be mass violence."

Raskin's document Why the New Party? included:

Across the nation there is a general revulsion for the political parties which in reality have built their power on the interests of special groups that have no base among the people, which maintain power through war and cold war, privilege selling and the granting of favors to the few.

Young people, workers on the line in the factory and in the offices, women, farmers, black and brown people have come to believe that the two political parties are far too deeply implicated in causing the basic problems of American society to do anything toward resolving them.

The Democratic and Republican parties have allowed the cities to decay, encouraged and sustained a huge military establishment, supported a reckless and morally indefensible colonial war in Vietnam, and diverted the economy for wasteful and dangerous activity.

Although the Party was born in the Left, Raskin voiced a belief his anti-Establishment message could resonate with George Wallace voters as well.

The New Party thought about nominating McCarthy, as well as considering Sen. George McGovern, actor Paul Newman, NYC Mayor John Lindsay, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and Justice William O. Douglas. But in the end they decided to allow each state to nominate whatever ticket they wanted. It is difficult to say if the New Party operated under variant names across the country.

McCarthy himself disavowed this fourth party activity and took steps to keep his name off the November ballot. Raskin didn't care. He said McCarthy was going to be nominated whether he liked or not. They wanted his name and star power.

In Indiana the New Politics Party, which may or may not have been connected with Raskin, nominated McCarthy and Lindsay, who in turn had their names removed. So the Party quickly replaced the old pair with Dick Gregory and his running mate Mark Lane.

Dick Gregory was a ground-breaking African American comedian who became better known as a political activist than as an entertainer. I first became aware of Gregory in the 1960s when he protested in favor of the Nisqually Indians treaty fishing rights. For his trouble he was tossed into the Thurston County jail in Olympia, Washington where he engaged in a fast. In those days the jail was in the old courthouse across the street from the Capitol campus. The Nisqually people had set up a camp across the street on the Cap campus lawn in a show of support for Gregory. Talking with them was a political education for me and left a deep impression, so in that sense Gregory was successful in communicating his message to at least one individual. 

Gregory and Lane were already running as the Freedom and Peace Party ticket, a splinter group from the Peace and Freedom Party. In Colorado Gregory/Lane found a place on the ballot running in the New Party.

However in the State of Illinois Gregory would find himself as the Vice-Presidential nominee rather than having his name at the top of the ticket. In that state there were at least three groups agitating for McCarthy: the Palatine Politics for Peace Committee, the Illinois Citizens for McCarthy, and the New Party. The latter group selected Dick Gregory as McCarthy's running mate. It could be that members of the Illinois New Party still had the fresh memory of Gregory and McCarthy addressing protesters together at Grant Park during the Democratic convention in Chicago.

Gregory was possibly addressing the Illinois proposed ticket when he said in a filmed interview why he was running as a write-in: "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. Senator McCarthy is a Democrat and I wouldn't expect him to accept a nomination but a Democratic nomination because he is still a Democrat. He is not an independent."

As usual, McCarthy refused to have anything to do with the New Party effort and and his name was removed from consideration, but die-hard supporters would forge on anyway. The McCarthy/Gregory popular vote result is lost somewhere in the 325 "scattered" write-ins listed for Illinois.

Election history:
1967 - Mayor of Chicago (Independent) - defeated
1968 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for President - defeated
1968 - US President (Freedom and Peace Party/Peace and Freedom Party/New Party/New Politics Party) - defeated

Other occupations: comedian, soldier (US Army), activist

Buried: Fort Lincoln Cemetery (Brentwood, Md.)

Notes:
Winner of the 1967 mayoral race was Richard J. Daley. Another opponent was Lar Daly.
"I waited at the counter of a white restaurant for eleven years. When they finally integrated, they
 didn’t have what I wanted."
"I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that."
"A Klanner (KKK) is a cat who gets out of bed in the middle of the night and takes his sheet with
 him."
"I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood
 after dark."
"You know the definition of a Southern moderate? That’s a cat that’ll lynch you from a low tree."
"For a black man, there's no difference between the North and the South. In the South, they don't
 mind how close I get, as long as I don't get too big. In the North, they don't mind how big I get, as
 long as I don't get too close."
"Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and
 said: 'We don't serve colored people here.' I said: 'that's all right, I don't eat colored people. Bring me
 a whole fried chicken.'"
"Baseball is very big with my people. It figures. It's the only way we can get to shake a bat at a white
 man without starting a riot."
"We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history
 books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a
 massacre."
When asked how activists could resist the Trump administration, Gregory responded, "You don’t
 have to do nothing ... this country is not going to make four years, it’s over."