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Before Clinton and Obama
Women and African Americans who ran for America's top job
By RICHA VARMA
Election year 2008 brings the first real chance of electing a woman or an
African American to the Oval Office-a prospect of change in the
uninterrupted pattern of white male U.S. presidents since George
Washington took the oath of office more than two centuries ago.
But while the battle for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination
between New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Senator
Barack Obama offers voters a novel choice, there were others before them.
Nearly five decades before American women even got the right to vote in
1920, stockbroker and publisher Victoria C. Woodhull became the first
woman candidate for President, running on the Equal Rights Party ticket in
1872. The only other woman to run for President in the 19th century was
Belva Ann Lockwood of the National Equal Rights Party in 1884.
Incidentally, she was also the first woman admitted to practice law before
the U.S. Supreme Court.
After more than seven decades with no prominent women candidates, Maine
Republican Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to seek a major
party's presidential nomination, in 1964. Smith, who was elected to the
Senate in 1948 and served 32 years in Congress, finished a far second to
the eventual nominee, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, in the balloting at
the 1964 Republican National Convention.
On the 100th anniversary of Woodhull's historic bid, Shirley Chisholm's
run for the 1972 Democratic nomination marked another first in U.S.
politics. The seven-term New York Congresswoman captured five percent of
the total 3,016 delegate votes at the party convention, breaking all
records for a woman candidate of any party.
Clinton has now come further than any woman candidate in history, winning
more than 1,400 delegates so far. Her main opponent, Obama, has won more
than 1,500 delegates, outdoing any previous African American candidate. A
candidate has to win at least 2,025 delegates to become the Democratic
presidential nominee.
The woman who has come closest to the U.S. presidency is one who has never
been a candidate for the post: Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives since 2007. Although she was elected only by the residents
of her congressional district in California, she is second in line to the
presidency after Vice President Dick Cheney. The Presidential Succession
Act of 1947 specifies who would take control of the government if the
President and Vice President were unable to perform their offices.
However, the law has never been used. Only men elected President or their
Vice Presidents have ever occupied the Oval Office.
Two African Americans-Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice-have been fourth
in line for the presidency because of their positions as Secretary of
State for President George W. Bush.
Several women have sought, or won, their party's nomination to become Vice
President of the United States. In 1972, former Texas state legislator
Frances (Sissy) Farenthold finished second in balloting for Vice President
during the Democratic National Convention.
A "Black power" activist and professor at the University of California in
Los Angeles, Angela Davis, ran for Vice President on the Communist Party
ticket in 1980 and 1984.
Another first was achieved by third-term Congresswoman Geraldine A.
Ferraro, who became the first woman to run for Vice President on a major
party's ticket when she was chosen by Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale
as his running mate in 1984. They were defeated by Republican President
Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Among the most notable African American candidates who have run for U.S.
President is civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. He campaigned for the
Democratic nomination twice, in 1984 and 1988. While Jackson gained 21
percent of the popular vote during the party primaries and caucuses, he
won only eight percent of the delegates in his first run. In the second
campaign, however, he more than doubled his previous tally and made a
surprising second-place finish to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
at the party convention.
Having served as an assistant secretary of state in Reagan's
administration, Alan Keyes, an African American, campaigned for the
Republican Party nomination in 1996, 2000 and again in this election. He
dropped out early this year after winning no delegates in several
primaries.
Another civil rights activist, Al Sharpton, ran a colorful but
unsuccessful campaign seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination
in 2004. Now, Obama's
campaign has made history. He has won a majority of delegates in more than
30 state primaries and caucuses, and by May had more delegates than any
other candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination. His landslide
victories in many states show that white as well as black Americans voted
for him in large numbers. As the son of a white American woman from Kansas
and a black father from Kenya, he has brought a unique perspective to this
election.
No matter whether Clinton or Obama wins the Democratic Party nomination,
and no matter whether either wins the presidency in the upcoming election
against Republican Party nominee John McCain, their candidacies have
already broken barriers and changed perceptions about what is possible in
American politics.
Courtesy: SPAN Magazine |
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