Ralph Abernathy, Corky Gonzales, Peggy Terry
Peggy Terry, October 28, 1921 (Haileyville, Okla.) - May 4, 2004 (Chicago, Ill.)
VP candidate for Peace and Freedom Party (1968)
Running mate with nominee: Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)
Popular vote: 28,642 (0.04%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Driven chiefly by Californians, the Peace and Freedom Party was organized in the mid-1960s and went national in an attempt to link together various contingents of the Left. At their Presidential nominating convention Aug. 17-18, 1968 in Ann Arbor, Mich. where Eldridge Cleaver was selected over Dick Gregory, a schism had already become obvious. Gregory would go on to outpoll Cleaver on Election Day.
Cleaver, the author of Soul on Ice and the Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, had little patience for the serious bickering that took place at the convention. When it came time to nominate a Vice-Presidential candidate, Cleaver suggested Youth International Party activist Jerry Rubin-- an idea that went nowhere as many considered Rubin to be too erratic, uncontrollable, and part of the Far Right of the Far Left. As the convention wrestled over this and other issues, Cleaver walked out in frustration and the matter was eventually left up to each state to select his running mate.
A member of the Socialist Workers Party took notes at this event and concluded:
Some Generalizations 1) The P&F movement is in a state of serious disarray. 2) The "coalition" with the Panthers had been badly shaken. 3) If Cleaver doesn't extricate himself from this mess soon he will rapidly and thoroughly discredit himself in the eyes of black militants inside and outside the BPP.
In April 1968, prior to being nominated, Cleaver was involved in a police shootout. Shortly after the election he felt obliged to jump bail and flee to Cuba.
For the ticket in California and Minnesota, Peggy Terry was selected as the running mate. SDS leader Carl Oglesby had been considered for VP in California, but that was scrapped for some reason or he withdrew. Terry had grown up in grinding poverty in a family where some belonged to the Ku Klux Klan as they frequently moved around in the South. Eventually a series of events, including witnessing Martin Luther King being assaulted by a crowd of racists, radicalized her. She moved north to Chicago and is often called one of the members of the original Rainbow Coalition.
Terry, although somewhat reluctantly at first, was convinced by her comrades that she had the unique qualifications to approach the poor white neighborhoods of Chicago ("Hillbilly Harlem") and persuade them away from populist segregationist George Wallace and broaden their power by joining the Peace and Freedom Party. As she said at the June, 1968 Solidarity Rally:
We, the poor whites of the United States, today demand an end to racism, for our own self interest and well being, as well as for the well being of black, brown, and red Americans, who, I repeat, are our natural allies in the struggle for real freedom and real democracy in these, OUR, United States of America.
J.W. Randolph, Terry's campaign manager, described a little bit of the electioneering activity:
So it was that in the fall of 1968 I managed Peggy's bid to become the Vice President of the United States of America. The campaign believed we could raise the issue of poverty and encourage people beyond Chicago to organize among poor whites. We hit the trail with a collection of cars and young radicals, heading to places like Des Moines, Detroit, Columbus, Ohio, and cities in California. In Louisville, Kentucky, we were run out of a Kroger food store parking lot by an angry mob of Ku Klux Klan members who began throwing rocks while we sang “We Shall Overcome” (as the police suddenly disappeared).
Our plan had been to bury ourselves in poor communities like Uptown, to recruit community people and build a base that would be part of the larger ongoing struggle for social, political, and economic justice. Our approach was to push for the long haul, staying in the community and going through change with people. We had some success. Certainly the young middle class white organizers, as well as a number of young neighborhood guys and welfare moms and their kids, had their lives changed.
In California, Cleaver was not allowed in the ballot due to his age, but Terry and the Electors remained.
Of Cleaver's multiple running mates, it was the ticket with Terry that garnered the lion's share of votes. The national vote for Cleaver was 36,571 (0.04%). Of those votes 27,707 came from the Cleaver/Terry choice in California where they placed 4th with (0.38%), and Minnesota with 935 votes (0.06%) where they also placed 4th.
Election history: none
Other occupations: migrant worker, weapons factory, waitress, community activist, member of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), newspaper editor, member of Jobs or Income Now (JOIN), member of Chicago Council for Peace and Voters for Peace, on Steering Committee for Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Poor People's Campaign
Buried: Symonsia Cemetery (Symonsia, Ky.)
Notes:
Born Luevelle Oletta Ousley.
Became friends and a collaborator with Studs Terkel.
"Where else could I go and be treated with this respect that I’ve been treated with by Reverend King,
the Nobel Peace Prize winner? No white Nobel Prize winner would pay poor white trash like me the
slightest attention. Reverend King does."--Peggy Terry.
Briefly a member of the Communist Party USA after marrying Gil Terry.
Had a role in the film Medium Cool ("Look out Haskell, it's real!") but her scenes were cut. (extra
trivia-- I was a college classmate with Haskell Wexler's son, Mark). However she still helped with
production by providing contacts. Robert Forster, one of the stars in the movie, just passed on a few
days ago, RIP (1941-2019).
