revised

    African Americans have been portrayed as the lesser human being for centuries. Whether it was being denied job opportunities, lower pay, fewer benefits, slavery, being denied education and civil rights .In order to make a change for our people we had to step up and fight going against the political norm.

    A century before the first black president Barack Obama ,who was successful at winning two presidential terms. There was George Edwin Taylor. A son of a slave who was the first African American to run for president in 1909 against Theodore Roosevelt.

Edwin had already been president in the National Colored men protective association and the National Negro Democratic League. Where African Americans fought against slave culture in the country. Taylor ran for office at the peak of the civil war. where there were people who were pro civil rights and not pro black president.
  Black men had already got the right to vote in 1870, under the 15th amendment but Black women weren't given the right to vote ,until the 1920's under the 19th amendment.The gap of years is ridiculous! Right? I wonder how different it would have been to have that right since the beginning.

According to the article'' The son of a slave who ran for president''. Edwin stated before his race '' Yes i know white folks take me as a joke ,but i tell you the colored man is beginning to see a lot of things the whites did not give the credit of seeing''.


George was aware of how politics and the country was at that time so he wasn't faced by his oppressors, he was always prepared. He wasn't the type of person to give up or let people discourage him.



In the Article '' A forgotten presidential candidate from 1904'', It states that neither the republicans nor democrats ,would have taken the consideration of nominating an African American candidate for president seriously, '' they would not have risked separating white voters for the possibility of gaining black votes''.

Taylor was able to gain some white allies and they would nominate him to be in the independent party that was called ''Negro national liberty party'' . That would promote voting for the blacks. His name was even purposely left off of ballots across the country.

Though he only received 2,000 votes , he made a significant impact for African Americans by showing that we were more than the norm, we were capable of anything. He proved the political power of blacks after the reconstruction era.

Citations: 

Hill, Selena. “Black History Month: The Son of a Slave Who Ran for President, George Edwin Taylor.” Black Enterprise, Black Enterprise, 1 Feb. 2019, www.blackenterprise.com/black-history-month-son-slave-ran-president/.

Weeks, Linton. “A Forgotten Presidential Candidate From 1904.” NPR, NPR, 1 Dec. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/12/01/455267676/a-forgotten-presidential-candidate-from-1904.