If you ask a random person on the street who the 1st African American to run for president was, they’ll probably say Shirley Chisholm. Or maybe Jesse Jackson. If they’re really into history, they might guess Frederick Douglass.
Honestly? They’d be wrong.
While Chisholm was a powerhouse and Douglass was a legend, the actual first Black man to head a national ticket for the White House was a journalist named George Edwin Taylor. He ran in 1904. That’s right—more than sixty years before the Voting Rights Act even existed.
It’s kind of wild that we don’t talk about him more. Taylor wasn’t just a "protest" candidate; he was the official nominee of the National Negro Liberty Party. He navigated a world of lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and a political system that actively wanted him gone. Yet, there he was, on the ballot in a handful of states, demanding that the government actually protect its citizens.
Why History Forgot the 1st African American to Run for President
We love a clean narrative. History books like to jump from the Civil War straight to the Civil Rights Movement, skipping over the messy, brave stuff that happened in between. George Edwin Taylor falls right into that gap.
Taylor’s story starts in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1857. He was born to a free mother and an enslaved father. When he was just a toddler, Arkansas passed a law basically telling free Black people to "get out or be enslaved." His mother fled with him to Illinois, but she died of tuberculosis shortly after. Taylor ended up living in dry-goods boxes in the streets of Alton, Illinois, before catching a steamboat up to Wisconsin.
✨ Don't miss: Why Every Tornado Warning MN Now Live Alert Demands Your Immediate Attention
He eventually found a home with a Black farming family, got an education, and became a fierce labor journalist. By the time 1904 rolled around, he was done with the two-party system. He’d tried being a Republican (the party of Lincoln had abandoned Black voters) and he’d tried being a Democrat (the party of the South was, well, the party of the South).
So, he went third-party. The National Negro Liberty Party platform was surprisingly modern. They wanted:
- Universal suffrage (voting rights for everyone).
- Federal anti-lynching laws.
- Pensions for former slaves.
- Independence for the Philippines (he was a big anti-imperialist).
The Candidates Who Came Close (But Weren't First)
There’s a lot of confusion about this "first" title because different people hit different milestones. It's sorta like how people argue over who invented the lightbulb.
Frederick Douglass (1848 and 1888)
Douglass is often cited as the first, and technically, he received a single nominating vote at the Liberty Party convention in 1848. He got another vote in 1888 at the Republican National Convention. But Douglass never actually ran a campaign or headed a ticket. He was a symbol, not a candidate with a platform and a running mate in those years.
Channing E. Phillips (1968)
Rev. Phillips was a big deal. He was the first Black person to have his name placed in nomination for president at a major party convention (the Democrats). This happened in the chaos of 1968 after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Phillips got 67.5 votes on the floor. It was historic, but it wasn't a general election run.
🔗 Read more: Brian Walshe Trial Date: What Really Happened with the Verdict
Shirley Chisholm (1972)
"Unbought and Unbossed." You’ve seen the T-shirts. Chisholm was the first Black woman to seek the nomination from a major party and the first woman to appear in a Democratic primary debate. She’s the reason many people think the 1st African American to run for president came from the 70s. She paved the way for everyone who followed, but Taylor had already cleared a tiny, overgrown path 68 years earlier.
What it Was Like on the Campaign Trail in 1904
Imagine running for president when you can't even sit in the "whites only" section of a train. Taylor knew he wasn't going to win. He told The Sun in New York that he knew people thought his candidacy was a joke.
But he didn't care.
He saw the "National Negro Liberty Party" as a way to prove that Black voters weren't a monolith that the Republicans could just ignore. He wanted to force a conversation about civil rights at a time when the Supreme Court was busy gutting the 14th Amendment.
Taylor's campaign was "quixotic," a fancy way of saying it was a beautiful, doomed struggle. He didn't have a massive budget. He didn't have TV ads. He had his newspaper, his voice, and a small group of delegates from 36 states who were tired of being treated like second-class citizens. On election day, he only got a "scattering" of votes—the official counts are notoriously unreliable because many of his votes likely weren't even recorded—but the point had been made.
💡 You might also like: How Old is CHRR? What People Get Wrong About the Ohio State Research Giant
Why This Matters in 2026
You might think, "Okay, cool history lesson, but so what?"
The thing is, Taylor’s run explains a lot about why our politics look the way they do today. He was one of the first to realize that neither major party is "entitled" to a specific group's vote. He pushed for "Independent Black Politics," an idea that still pops up every election cycle when people feel underserved by the status quo.
Understanding that the 1st African American to run for president was a former orphan who lived in a box and grew up to challenge the entire American political structure is pretty inspiring. It shows that the fight for representation isn't a recent trend—it's a fundamental part of the American story that started way earlier than we're taught.
Actionable Insights: How to Use This History
If you're a student, a history buff, or just someone who wants to be more informed, here’s how you can actually apply this:
- Check the "Firsts": Whenever you hear someone called the "first" at something in politics, dig deeper. Usually, there’s a "third-party" or "minority-party" trailblazer who did it decades earlier without the funding of the big machines.
- Support Local Archives: Much of what we know about Taylor comes from the work of historian Bruce L. Mouser and archives in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Local history is where the real stories are buried.
- Read the Platforms: Don't just look at the candidates. Look at the 1904 National Negro Liberty Party platform. It’s a masterclass in how to demand specific policy changes rather than just "vague hope."
- Acknowledge the Nuance: When talking about Shirley Chisholm or Barack Obama, mention Taylor. It doesn't take away from their achievements; it adds context to the long, grueling marathon they were part of.
The next time a trivia night or a political debate brings up the 1st African American to run for president, you’ll be the one with the actual facts. George Edwin Taylor might have been forgotten by the history books for a century, but his legacy of "shaking up the system" is alive and well.