"George Edwin Taylor"(August 4,1857-December 23,1925)

gWas a native of Arkansas and the first African-American standard-bearer  of a national political party to run for the office of the president of the United States.He was born in Little Rock Arkansas (Pulaski County) to Bryant (Nathan) Taylor,a slave and Amanda Hines, a "free negro" woman;he had eleven siblings,none of whom are known by name.Nothing is known about his parents,except  Amanda was forced to leave Arkansas in 1859 to compliance with the state's Free Expulsion Act,signed into law on February 12,1859.She fled with George to Alton,Illinois,a major center of the Underground Railroad.Little is known about his time in Alton,except that his mama died from tuberculosis in 1861 or 1862,and George lived in "dry good boxes"before he was taken to the La Crosse, Wisconsin,area where he lived from the Henry and Agnes Southhall family and attended La Crosse's schools.From 1867,he was raised by a politically active black farmer near West Salem,Wisconsin.He attended country schools and Wayland Academy (1877-1879) in Beaver Dam,Wisconsin,where he studied the "classical curriculum."In 1879,George worked as a journalist in the La Crosse area, contributing to numerous local newspapers eventually owning and editing the Wisconsin Labor Advocate.He was active in local and state politics,especially in the labor movement and in the Wisconsin People's and Union Labor parties.George moved to Oskaloosa,Iowa, in 1891,where he owned and edited the Negro Solicitor.While in Iowa,George was president of the National Negro Democratic League,the National Negro Protective Association,and the National (Negro)Knights of Pythias.from (1891-1910),he moved to Florida,where he was the executive director of Jacksonville's "Colored"Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and editor of three local newspapers:the Promoter,the Florida Times Union (colored section)and the Florida Sentine!George married three times:Mary Hall of Prairie du Chien,Wisconsin,on October 15,1885;Cora Cooper in Oskaloosa,Iowa,on August 25,1894;and Marian Tillinghast of Green Cove Springs,Florida,circa.1919.No children were born to any of these marriages.His principal success (and failure) was his candidacy of the National Negro Liberty Party in 1904 for the office of president of the United States.That election was won by Theodore Roosevelt,but George 1904 candidacy reflected of the enormous trauma then facing African-American voters who were witnessing a fundamental failure  of both Republicans and Democrats to protect civil rights gained after the war,a systematic and thorough disfranchisement of their race in Southern states,and an imposition of Jim Crow Laws and  Segregation.The Liberty Party's platform contained planks that supported pensions for ex-slaves,independence for Puerto Ricans and Filipinos, and representations for voters in the District of Columbia.It also condemned disfranchisement efforts then sweeping the South.The state of Arkansas played a prominent role in attempts to dehumanize black citizens.George died in Jacksonville, Florida,the cause of his death and place of burial are unknown.