The 1968 U.S. Presidential election was one that saw a Black woman run for the nation’s top post for the first time ever.

Charlene Mitchell, the first woman to make the historic announcement of her presidential bid, died earlier this month at the age of 92. 

In 1968, Mitchell ran as a third-party candidate, representing The Communist Party USA with her running mate Michael Zagarell, the National Youth Director of the party. 

Her platform included plans to fight racial and economic justice, and support for feminism. When Mitchell accepted her party’s nomination, she did so below a banner that read, “Black and White Unite to Fight Racism — Poverty — War!”

Mitchell was born on June 8, 1930, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Chicago. Her parents were part of the Great Migration of Black Southerners who moved north during the earlier part of the 20th century.

According to The New York Times, Mitchell joined the Communist Party at just 16 years old, becoming the youngest member ever.  

She founded an all-Black chapter of the Communist Party in Los Angeles called the Che-Lumumba Club, named after Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. 

It quickly became among the most active chapters in the nation, and by the time she announced her presidential candidacy, Mitchell had already established herself as one of the best-known and most widely respected American Communist leaders.

While her ticket only appeared on a few states’ ballots during the 1968 election, and she received about 1,000 votes, Mitchell paid the way for a number of other Black women candidates. 

Just one election season later in 1972, New York congresswoman Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman to seek the presidential nomination from a major party. 

To date, there have been nine other Black women to run for U.S. President: Margaret Wright (ran in 1976 on the People’s Party ticket), Isabell Masters (ran in 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 on her Looking Back party), Lenora Fulani (ran in 1988 on an independent), Monica Moorehead (ran in 1996, 2000 and 2016 on the Workers World Party ticket), Joy Chavis Rocker (ran in 2000 as a member of the Republican Party), Carol Moseley Braun (ran in 2004 as a Democratic), Cynthia McKinney (ran in 2008 as a member of the Green Party), Peta Lindsay (ran in 2012 on the Party for Socialism and Liberation ticket), and Kamala Harris (ran in 2020 as a Democrat, and then went on to become the vice presidential candidate).

After her unsuccessful bid for president, Mitchell became among one of the key contributors to the campaign to free political activist Angela Davis, who had been arrested for providing the guns used in the murder of a Marin County judge. 

Shortly after Davis was acquitted in 1972, Mitchell created the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, an organization focused on police brutality and the legal system. 

During the 1980s, Mitchell began to drift away from The Communist Party, but remained a committed socialist. She later co-founded the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which sought to rebuilt the left along more pluralist lines. 

Mitchell is survived by her son, Steven Mitchell, and two brothers, Deacon Alexander and Mike Wolfson.