Julius Wilson Hobson, May 29, 1919 (Birmingham, Ala.) – March 23, 1977 (Washington, D.C.)
VP candidate for People's Party (aka Liberty Union Party aka Peace and Freedom Party aka Independent aka New Party aka Common Good Party aka Human Rights Party) (1972)
Running mate with nominee: Benjamin McLane Spock (1903–1998)
Popular vote: 78,759 (0.10%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The People's Party was an attempt to form an umbrella political party for the far Left. It was comprised of elements from the Peace and Freedom Party (Calif, Idaho, Ind.), Liberty Union Party (Vt.), Common Good Party (NY), Human Rights Party (Mich., Utah), and the New Party.
The New Party attempted to draft consumer advocate Ralph Nader for President, but he refused to run that year. The Peace and Freedom Party, now mostly centered in California, joined the coalition to form the People's Party. Michigan's Human Rights Party declined to place Dr. Spock's name on the ballot in deference to Sen. McGovern. Efforts to place Spock on the ballot in New York and Utah came to nothing.
After seriously considering backing the nomination of US Sen. George McGovern (D-SD), the Party chose to nominate Dr. Benjamin Spock, with Julius W. Hobson as his running mate. Dr. Spock stated he was merely a stand-in candidate and would gladly step down if someone else with more stature such as Rep. Shirley Chisholm agreed to run in his place.
Hobson, who by 1972 was something of a political gadfly, had evolved into an increasingly militant activist to battle various manifestations of segregation in Washington, DC using original and effective tactics on the streets, in court, and serving in public office. The man had a unique blend of being part political theater showman and part researcher. In 1971 he was given just six months to live as a result of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the spine, but fooled everyone by surviving until 1977 although he eventually was restricted to a wheelchair. In at least one photo from the 1972 campaign Hobson can be seen using crutches.
The platform, according to the New York Times, included "immediate withdrawal of all American troops abroad; free medical care as a right; an end to tax preference; an allowance of $6,500 for a family of four; the legalization of abortion on demand and marijuana, and an end to discrimination against women and homosexuals." Unfortunately for the People's Party the Democratic Party nomination of McGovern, easily the most Leftist candidate that party has offered since FDR, absorbed a group of voters who otherwise would have supported Spock if someone like Hubert Humphrey or Henry "Scoop" Jackson had been chosen instead.
On the ballot in ten states the Spock/Hobson ticket finished strongest in California 0.66%, Vermont 0.54%, Idaho 0.29%, and Colorado 0.25%.
Election history:
1968-1969 - District of Columbia Board of Education
1969 - District of Columbia Board of Education - defeated
1971 - US House of Representatives Delegate (DC Statehood Party) - defeated
1975-1977 - Council of the District of Columbia (DC Statehood Party)
Other occupations: custodian, paper company worker, soldier (WWII), Library of Congress researcher, Social Security Administration economist and statistician, teacher, Chair of the District of Columbia’s chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founder of Association Community Teams (ACT), author
Buried: ?
Notes:
Some sources give his year of birth as 1922
"For 25 hell-raising years, Mr. Hobson shook Washington in unorthodox, unpredictable ways. As
often as not, he was the lone front-line fighter against some aspect of racial discrimination, the
gruff-and-ready tickler for equal education. He was always fast with an irreverent quip, and he never
let up on his lawsuits, his books, his thorough research, his provocative political activities and his
extraordinary ability to intimidate, embarrass or fool officialdom into doing something about civil
rights."--Washington Post obituary.
In 1981 the Washington Post revealed that Hobson had been a paid informer for the FBI in the 1960s.
Many of his supporters suspect he was playing a game of supplying misinformation or using the
Bureau to thwart his enemies.
In Vermont in 1972 Bernie Sanders was downticket running for Governor also as part of the Liberty Union slate.
