Charlene Mitchell: Difference between revisions

Charlene Alexander Mitchell
Charlene Alexander Mitchell
Born	June 8, 1930; Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 14, 2022 (aged 92); New York City, U.S.
Occupations	International socialist, feminist; labor; civil rights activist;

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Charlene Alexander Mitchell (June 8, 1930 – December 14, 2022) was an American international socialist, feminist, labor and civil rights activist. In 1968, she became the first Black woman candidate for President of the United States.^[1]^[2]

In the 1970s, she became a leader in efforts to support the defense of Angela Davis, founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, campaigned on behalf of the defenses of Joan Little and the Wilmington Ten, and focused her activism on anti-apartheid efforts.

Mitchell joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) at the age of 16, and is considered to have been one of the most influential leaders in the party in the late 1950s and the 1960s.^[3]^[4] After leaving the party, she became a leader of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) in the 1990s.

Early life and education

Born Charlene Alexander in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 8, 1930,^[5] she moved with her parents and seven siblings to Chicago at the age of nine.^[1]^[3] In the early 20th century, her parents had moved north during the Great Migration of Black Southerners.^[1] During the Second World War, she grew up in the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses in the Near North Side of Chicago and took classes at the Moody Bible Institute.^[3]^[6]

She joined the Communist Party USA at the age of 16, and had joined the youth branch, the American Youth for Democracy, when she was 13.^[1] Early activism by Mitchell in the 1940s included participation in a successful sit-in protest against segregated seating in a theater, with white students sitting in the "colored only" balcony and Black students sitting in the "whites only" section below.^[1]^[7]

In Chicago, her father was a precinct captain for Rep. William L. Dawson, a Pullman porter, a hod carrier, and a labor activist.^[1]^[7] Mitchell attended Herzl Junior College in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles in the 1955.^[1]^[3]

Political career

In 1958, Mitchell joined the national committee of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).^[1] Her 1959 testimony before a panel of the House Un-American Activities Committee received attention due to her refusals to answer questions and her challenge to the authority of the committee.^[2] In Los Angeles, she founded the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-Black chapter of CPUSA, in the 1960s.^[1]^[5] Angela Davis worked with Mitchell and the Che-Lumumba Club, including to organize protests.^[1]^[8] Mitchell's brother and sister-in-law Franklin and Kendra Alexander were also active in the Che-Lumumba Club.^[9] Mitchell moved to New York City in 1968.^[1]^[2]

As a third-party candidate in the election of 1968, Mitchell was the first Black woman to run for President of the United States.^[1]^[10] She represented the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and her running mate was Michael "Mike" Zagarell, the National Youth Director of the party.^[11] They were entered on the ballots in only four states and received about 1000 votes.^[1]^[2]

After Davis was arrested in 1970, Mitchell led efforts to support her defense.^[1]^[2] Mitchell worked with Kendra and Franklin Alexander on the campaign to free Davis, including as an investigator for the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and with a small team and Davis to coordinate political and legal defenses.^[12]^[9]

According to Sol Stern at the New York Times in 1971, it was "the best-organized, most broad-based defense effort in the recent history of radical political trials--more potent that that afforded to any of the Panther leaders or the Chicago Seven."^[9] Davis later described the effort as "one of the most impressive mass international campaigns of the 20th century" and said about Mitchell, "I have never known anyone as consistent in her values, as collective in her outlook on life, as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter."^[7]

After the acquittal of Davis in 1972, Mitchell founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, with a focus on police brutality and the legal system.^[1]^[2] Mitchell also campaigned on behalf of the defenses of Joan Little and the Wilmington Ten.^[5]^[2]

Mitchell began to focus on anti-apartheid efforts in the 1970s, and visited Nelson Mandela in South Africa after his release from prison in 1990.^[2] Benjamin Chavis has said that in the 1980s, James Baldwin referred to Mitchell as "the Joan of Arc of Harlem" because "she dares to utter unspeakable truth to power."^[2]

In 1988, Mitchell ran as an Independent Progressive for U.S. Senator from New York against the incumbent Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He was re-elected by a large margin. Mitchell received 0.2% of the vote to finish fourth out of seven candidates, ahead of the candidates from the Workers World Party, Libertarian Party and Socialist Workers Party.^[13]

After the death of prominent CPUSA member Henry Winston in 1986, Mitchell and other party members questioned the direction of the party.^[2] They planned a reform movement and matters came to a head at a convention in December 1991. Many who signed a letter urging reform were purged by Gus Hall from the CPUSA's national committee, including Mitchell, Angela Davis, Kendra Alexander and other African-American leaders.^[14] Others who left the Party then included Herbert Aptheker, Gil Green, and Michael Myerson.^[15]

Mitchell became an elected leader of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) in the 1990s.^[5] In 1993, Mitchell attended the Foro de São Paulo in Havana as an observer from the CCDS.^[16] In 1994 she served as an official international observer of the first democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa,^[17] where Nelson Mandela was elected president.^[2]

Personal life and death

Mitchell married Bill Mitchell in 1950 and they had a son in 1951.^[5] After their divorce, she married Michael Welch and they later divorced.^[1] In 2007, she experienced a stroke.^[5]^[1] Mitchell died in New York City’s Amsterdam Nursing Home on December 14, 2022, at the age of 92.^[18]

Selected works

The Fight to Free Angela Davis: Its Importance for the Working Class, New York: New Outlook Publishers (1972), ISBN 0-87898-085-7
Equality: its time has come, New York: New Outlook Publishers (1985)

Notes and references

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Risen, Clay (December 23, 2022). "Charlene Mitchell, 92, Dies; First Black Woman to Run for President". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Murphy, Brian (December 24, 2022). "Charlene Mitchell, first Black woman in presidential race, dies at 92". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d McDuffie, Erik S. (2011). Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Duke University Press. p. 140.
^ West, E. James (September 24, 2019). "A Black Woman Communist Candidate: Charlene Mitchell's 1968 Presidential Campaign". African American Intellectual History Society. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Boyd, Herb (December 22, 2022). "Charlene Mitchell, activist and presidential candidate, dies at 92". Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ Gagarin, Nicholas (November 5, 1968). "Charlene Mitchell: Silhouette". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Black Women and the Radical Tradition Conference 2009: Angela Davis Tribute to Charlene Mitchell, Introductory comments by Gena Rae Mcneil". Vimeo. Graduate Center for Worker Education of Brooklyn College. 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2022. ...at age 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlene's mother's illness necessitated that Charlene take several busses for one of the scariest trips on which she had ever been thus far in her life. She was on her way to the Federal jail to visit her labor-activist father. After a long ride with several transfers, she arrived so late at the Federal jail that the guards deemed it too late for her to really have any kind of visit. Technically, at the time of her arrival, visiting hours were not over, and Charlene at age 7 argued the point, protesting the guards' decision which, if implemented, would have prevented her from visiting her father and delivering a basket of items her mother had entrusted to her for him. Through what she remembers and describes as "hollering and demanding", she managed to persuade the armed guard to let her go up in the jail elevator at the very end of visiting hours then, and after she "hollered" some more, she persuaded the guard that visiting her father with the glass between them was completely unacceptable, and made it impossible for her to deliver the basket. The guards held the basket and let her go into the room where there were table visits permitted providing visitors remained on their side of the table. As soon as Charlene's father came out and sat down, Charlene jumped around the table and sat on his lap. The guards threw up their hands, but she was not finished yet. She kept talking to them about the basket, telling the guards they could not go away with her father's basket, until they finally agreed that her father could see the basket before they took it back for inspection. In their very next conversation Charlene's mother and father had, Charlene's father told her mother 'never let Charlene come again'. It was too hard on him and the jailers would never get over it.
^ Herriott, Arianna (February 4, 2020). "Angela Davis: activist, educator, and scholar". WTKR. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c Stern, Sol (June 27, 1971). "The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ Nittle, Nadra Kareem (February 10, 2021). "Black Women Who Have Run for President". HISTORY. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
^ "Mitchell, Charlene (CPUSA)". Texas Scholar Works. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
^ Aptheker, Bettina (1997). The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis. Cornell University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8014-7014-1. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ New York Senate race details at OurCampaigns.com.
^ Erwin Marquit and Doris G. Marquit, "Party survives, but as a shell" Archived March 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Minnesota Daily, February 19, 1992. Accessed February 12, 2006.
^ "Crisis in the CPUSA: Interview with Charlene Mitchell". University of the Western Cape. 1993. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
^ James, Joy, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals (Routledge, 1997).
^ William Minter, Gail Hovey, and Charles Cobb Jr. (eds), "'Faces Filled with Joy': The 1994 South African Election", from No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2007.
^ "Charlene Mitchell, Leader of the Campaign To Free Angela Davis". Portside. 18 December 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.

External links

Charlene Mitchell Bibliography: Presidential Candidate, Communist Party USA (CPUSA), 1968 (University of Texas at Austin, UT Libraries)
"Charlene Mitchell on 1968 Presidential Election Laws". The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive.
Lisa Brock interviewed Mitchell in her home in Harlem in 2004 - among the topics raised were anti-colonialism, Pan-Africanism and the internationalism of the Communist Party USA. "Interviews for No Easy Victories: Charlene Mitchell". 2004. Retrieved 1 May 2020.

Party political offices
Preceded by James W. Ford	Communist Party USA Presidential candidate 1968 (lost)	Succeeded by Gus Hall

[Risen_2022-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Risen, Clay (December 23, 2022). "Charlene Mitchell, 92, Dies; First Black Woman to Run for President". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[Murphy_2022-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Murphy, Brian (December 24, 2022). "Charlene Mitchell, first Black woman in presidential race, dies at 92". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[McDuffie-3] McDuffie, Erik S. (2011). Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Duke University Press. p. 140.

[4] West, E. James (September 24, 2019). "A Black Woman Communist Candidate: Charlene Mitchell's 1968 Presidential Campaign". African American Intellectual History Society. Retrieved 25 December 2022.

[Boyd_2022-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Boyd, Herb (December 22, 2022). "Charlene Mitchell, activist and presidential candidate, dies at 92". Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[Gagarin_1968-6] Gagarin, Nicholas (November 5, 1968). "Charlene Mitchell: Silhouette". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 25 December 2022.

[McNeil_2009-7] "Black Women and the Radical Tradition Conference 2009: Angela Davis Tribute to Charlene Mitchell, Introductory comments by Gena Rae Mcneil". Vimeo. Graduate Center for Worker Education of Brooklyn College. 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2022. ...at age 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlene's mother's illness necessitated that Charlene take several busses for one of the scariest trips on which she had ever been thus far in her life. She was on her way to the Federal jail to visit her labor-activist father. After a long ride with several transfers, she arrived so late at the Federal jail that the guards deemed it too late for her to really have any kind of visit. Technically, at the time of her arrival, visiting hours were not over, and Charlene at age 7 argued the point, protesting the guards' decision which, if implemented, would have prevented her from visiting her father and delivering a basket of items her mother had entrusted to her for him. Through what she remembers and describes as "hollering and demanding", she managed to persuade the armed guard to let her go up in the jail elevator at the very end of visiting hours then, and after she "hollered" some more, she persuaded the guard that visiting her father with the glass between them was completely unacceptable, and made it impossible for her to deliver the basket. The guards held the basket and let her go into the room where there were table visits permitted providing visitors remained on their side of the table. As soon as Charlene's father came out and sat down, Charlene jumped around the table and sat on his lap. The guards threw up their hands, but she was not finished yet. She kept talking to them about the basket, telling the guards they could not go away with her father's basket, until they finally agreed that her father could see the basket before they took it back for inspection. In their very next conversation Charlene's mother and father had, Charlene's father told her mother 'never let Charlene come again'. It was too hard on him and the jailers would never get over it.

[8] Herriott, Arianna (February 4, 2020). "Angela Davis: activist, educator, and scholar". WTKR. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[Stern_1971-9] Stern, Sol (June 27, 1971). "The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[10] Nittle, Nadra Kareem (February 10, 2021). "Black Women Who Have Run for President". HISTORY. Retrieved 14 May 2021.

[11] "Mitchell, Charlene (CPUSA)". Texas Scholar Works. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 25 December 2022.

[12] Aptheker, Bettina (1997). The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis. Cornell University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8014-7014-1. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[13] New York Senate race details at OurCampaigns.com.

[14] Erwin Marquit and Doris G. Marquit, "Party survives, but as a shell" Archived March 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Minnesota Daily, February 19, 1992. Accessed February 12, 2006.

[15] "Crisis in the CPUSA: Interview with Charlene Mitchell". University of the Western Cape. 1993. Retrieved 3 January 2021.

[16] James, Joy, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals (Routledge, 1997).

[17] William Minter, Gail Hovey, and Charles Cobb Jr. (eds), "'Faces Filled with Joy': The 1994 South African Election", from No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2007.

[18] "Charlene Mitchell, Leader of the Campaign To Free Angela Davis". Portside. 18 December 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{short description|American politician (1930–2022)}}
 {{for|the fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours|Charlene Robinson}}
+{{Infobox person
-[[File:Charlene Mitchell.jpg|thumb|Mitchell while running for president in 1968]]
+| name          = Charlene Alexander Mitchell
-'''Charlene Alexander Mitchell''' (June 8, 1930 – December 14, 2022) was an African-American [[communism|international socialist]], [[feminist]], [[Labour movement|labor]] and [[civil rights movement|civil rights]] activist. She was a National Co-Chair Emeritus of the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]] (CCDS).<ref>{{cite book |title=Committees of Correspondence For Democracy and Socialism |date=12 July 2018 |publisher=CCDS |page=1 |url=https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?filename=6325&file=EnglishTranslation |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref>
+| image         = Charlene Mitchell.jpg
+| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
+| caption       =
+| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from name -->
+| birth_date    = {{birth date|1930|06|8}}
+| birth_place   = [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], U.S.
+| death_date    = {{death date and age|2022|12|14|1930|06|8}}
+| death_place   = [[New York City]], U.S.
+| nationality   =
+| other_names   =
+| occupation    ={{hlist|[[communism|International socialist]], [[feminist]]|[[Labour movement|labor]] |[[civil rights movement|civil rights]] activist}}
+| years_active  =
+| known_for     =
+| notable_works =
+}}
+{{Socialism US|people}}
+'''Charlene Alexander Mitchell''' (June 8, 1930 – December 14, 2022) was an American [[communism|international socialist]], [[feminist]], [[Labour movement|labor]] and [[civil rights movement|civil rights]] activist. In 1968, she became the first Black woman candidate for President of the United States.<ref name="Risen 2022">{{cite news |last1=Risen |first1=Clay |title=Charlene Mitchell, 92, Dies; First Black Woman to Run for President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/us/politics/charlene-mitchell-dead.html |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 23, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Murphy 2022" />
+In the 1970s, she became a leader in efforts to support the defense of [[Angela Davis]], founded the  National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, campaigned on behalf of the defenses of [[Joan Little]] and the [[Wilmington Ten]], and focused her activism on anti-apartheid efforts.
-Mitchell joined the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) at age 16, and emerged as one of the most influential leaders in the party from the late 1950s to the 1980s.<ref name=McDuffie>Erik S. McDuffie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TFDmC4g5NjYC&pg=PA140 ''Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism''], Duke University Press, 2011, p. 140.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/12163|title=Mitchell, Charlene (CPUSA)|website=repositories.lib.utexas.edu|others=Photo from Operation SOLO FBI Files on CPUSA|access-date=2019-08-15}}</ref> As the CPUSA's nominee, she was the first Black woman candidate for President of the United States.<ref name="Risen 2022">{{cite news |last1=Risen |first1=Clay |title=Charlene Mitchell, 92, Dies; First Black Woman to Run for President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/us/politics/charlene-mitchell-dead.html |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 23, 2022}}</ref>
+Mitchell joined the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) at the age of 16, and is considered to have been one of the most influential leaders in the party in the late 1950s and the 1960s.<ref name=McDuffie>{{cite book|first=Erik S. |last=McDuffie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFDmC4g5NjYC&pg=PA140 |title=Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism|publisher= Duke University Press|date=2011|page= 140}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=West |first1=E. James |title=A Black Woman Communist Candidate: Charlene Mitchell's 1968 Presidential Campaign |url=https://www.aaihs.org/a-black-woman-communist-candidate-charlene-mitchells-1968-presidential-campaign/ |publisher=African American Intellectual History Society |access-date=25 December 2022 |date=September 24, 2019}}</ref> After leaving the party, she became a leader of the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]] (CCDS) in the 1990s.
-{{American socialism |People}}
 ==Early life and education==
-Born Charlene Alexander in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], on June 8, 1930,<ref name="Boyd 2022">{{cite news |last1=Boyd |first1=Herb |title=Charlene Mitchell, activist and presidential candidate, dies at 92 |url=https://www.wtkr.com/news/angela-davis-activist-educator-and-scholar |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=[[Philadelphia Tribune]] |date=December 22, 2022}}</ref> she moved with her parents and seven siblings to [[Chicago]] at the age of nine.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name=McDuffie /> In the early 20th century, her parents had moved north during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration of Black Southerners]].<ref name="Risen 2022" /> During the [[Second World War]], she grew up in the [[Frances Cabrini Rowhouses]] and took classes in the [[Moody Bible Institute]].<ref name=McDuffie />
+Born Charlene Alexander in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], on June 8, 1930,<ref name="Boyd 2022">{{cite news |last1=Boyd |first1=Herb|author-link=Herb Boyd |title=Charlene Mitchell, activist and presidential candidate, dies at 92 |url=https://www.wtkr.com/news/angela-davis-activist-educator-and-scholar |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=[[Philadelphia Tribune]] |date=December 22, 2022}}</ref> she moved with her parents and seven siblings to [[Chicago]] at the age of nine.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name=McDuffie /> In the early 20th century, her parents had moved north during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration of Black Southerners]].<ref name="Risen 2022" /> During the [[Second World War]], she grew up in the [[Frances Cabrini Rowhouses]] in the [[Near North Side, Chicago|Near North Side]] of Chicago and took classes at the [[Moody Bible Institute]].<ref name=McDuffie /><ref name="Gagarin 1968">{{cite news |last1=Gagarin |first1=Nicholas |title=Charlene Mitchell: Silhouette |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1968/11/5/charlene-mitchell-pbtbhe-frederick-douglas-book/ |access-date=25 December 2022 |work=[[The Harvard Crimson]] |date=November 5, 1968}}</ref>
-At 16, she joined the [[Communist Party USA]], after joining the youth branch, the [[American Youth for Democracy]], at the age of 13.<ref name="Risen 2022"/> Early activism by Mitchell in the 1940s included participation in a successful sit-in protest against segregated seating in a theater, with white students sitting in the "colored only" balcony and Black students sitting in the "whites only" section below.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="McNeil 2009"/>
+She joined the [[Communist Party USA]] at the age of 16, and had joined the youth branch, the [[American Youth for Democracy]], when she was 13.<ref name="Risen 2022"/> Early activism by Mitchell in the 1940s included participation in a successful sit-in protest against segregated seating in a theater, with white students sitting in the "colored only" balcony and Black students sitting in the "whites only" section below.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="McNeil 2009"/>
-In Chicago, her father was a precinct captain for Rep. [[William L. Dawson (politician)|William L. Dawson]], a [[Pullman porter]], a [[Brick hod|hod carrier]], and a labor activist.<ref name="Risen 2022"/><ref name="McNeil 2009">{{cite web |title=Black Women and the Radical Tradition Conference 2009: Angela Davis Tribute to Charlene Mitchell, Introductory comments by Gena Rae Mcneil |url=https://vimeo.com/10354190 |website=[[Vimeo]] |publisher=Graduate Center for Worker Education of [[Brooklyn College]] |access-date=24 December 2022 |date=2009 |quote=...at age 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlene's mother's illness necessitated that Charlene take several busses for one of the scariest trips on which she had ever been thus far in her life. She was on her way to the Federal jail to visit her labor-activist father. After a long ride with several transfers, she arrived so late at the Federal jail that the guards deemed it too late for her to really have any kind of visit. Technically, at the time of her arrival, visiting hours were not over, and Charlene at age 7 argued the point, protesting the guards' decision which, if implemented, would have prevented her from visiting her father and delivering a basket of items her mother had entrusted to her for him. Through what she remembers and describes as "hollering and demanding", she managed to persuade the armed guard to let her go up in the jail elevator at the very end of visiting hours then, and after she "hollered" some more, she persuaded the guard that visiting her father with the glass between them was completely unacceptable, and made it impossible for her to deliver the basket. The guards held the basket and let her go into the room where there were table visits permitted providing visitors remained on their side of the table. As soon as Charlene's father came out and sat down, Charlene jumped around the table and sat on his lap. The guards threw up their hands, but she was not finished yet. She kept talking to them about the basket, telling the guards they could not go away with her father's basket, until they finally agreed that her father could see the basket before they took it back for inspection. In their very next conversation Charlene's mother and father had, Charlene's father told her mother 'never let Charlene come again'. It was too hard on him and the jailers would never get over it.}}</ref> Mitchell attended [[Malcolm X College|Herzl Junior College]] in Chicago and moved to [[Los Angeles]] in the 1950s.<ref name="Risen 2022"/>
+In Chicago, her father was a precinct captain for Rep. [[William L. Dawson (politician)|William L. Dawson]], a [[Pullman porter]], a [[Brick hod|hod carrier]], and a labor activist.<ref name="Risen 2022"/><ref name="McNeil 2009">{{cite web |title=Black Women and the Radical Tradition Conference 2009: Angela Davis Tribute to Charlene Mitchell, Introductory comments by Gena Rae Mcneil |url=https://vimeo.com/10354190 |website=[[Vimeo]] |publisher=Graduate Center for Worker Education of [[Brooklyn College]] |access-date=24 December 2022 |date=2009 |quote=...at age 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlene's mother's illness necessitated that Charlene take several busses for one of the scariest trips on which she had ever been thus far in her life. She was on her way to the Federal jail to visit her labor-activist father. After a long ride with several transfers, she arrived so late at the Federal jail that the guards deemed it too late for her to really have any kind of visit. Technically, at the time of her arrival, visiting hours were not over, and Charlene at age 7 argued the point, protesting the guards' decision which, if implemented, would have prevented her from visiting her father and delivering a basket of items her mother had entrusted to her for him. Through what she remembers and describes as "hollering and demanding", she managed to persuade the armed guard to let her go up in the jail elevator at the very end of visiting hours then, and after she "hollered" some more, she persuaded the guard that visiting her father with the glass between them was completely unacceptable, and made it impossible for her to deliver the basket. The guards held the basket and let her go into the room where there were table visits permitted providing visitors remained on their side of the table. As soon as Charlene's father came out and sat down, Charlene jumped around the table and sat on his lap. The guards threw up their hands, but she was not finished yet. She kept talking to them about the basket, telling the guards they could not go away with her father's basket, until they finally agreed that her father could see the basket before they took it back for inspection. In their very next conversation Charlene's mother and father had, Charlene's father told her mother 'never let Charlene come again'. It was too hard on him and the jailers would never get over it.}}</ref> Mitchell attended [[Malcolm X College|Herzl Junior College]] in Chicago and moved to [[Los Angeles]] in the 1955.<ref name="Risen 2022"/><ref name=McDuffie />
 ==Political career==
 [[File:Michael Zagarell.jpg|thumb|150px|1968 running mate Michael Zagarell]]
-In Los Angeles, Mitchell founded the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-Black chapter of [[Communist Party USA]], in the 1960s.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="Boyd 2022" /> [[Angela Davis]] worked with Mitchell and the Che-Lumumba Club, including to organize protests.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Herriott |first1=Arianna |title=Angela Davis: activist, educator, and scholar |url=https://www.wtkr.com/news/angela-davis-activist-educator-and-scholar |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=WTKR |date=February 4, 2020}}</ref>
+In 1958, Mitchell joined the national committee of the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA).<ref name="Risen 2022" /> Her 1959 testimony before a panel of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] received attention due to her refusals to answer questions and her challenge to the authority of the committee.<ref name="Murphy 2022">{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Brian |title=Charlene Mitchell, first Black woman in presidential race, dies at 92 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/24/charlene-mitchell-communist-black-dies/ |access-date=24 December 2022 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=December 24, 2022}}</ref> In Los Angeles, she founded the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-Black chapter of CPUSA, in the 1960s.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="Boyd 2022" /> [[Angela Davis]] worked with Mitchell and the Che-Lumumba Club, including to organize protests.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Herriott |first1=Arianna |title=Angela Davis: activist, educator, and scholar |url=https://www.wtkr.com/news/angela-davis-activist-educator-and-scholar |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=WTKR |date=February 4, 2020}}</ref> Mitchell's brother and sister-in-law Franklin and Kendra Alexander were also active in the Che-Lumumba Club.<ref name="Stern 1971">{{cite news |last1=Stern |first1=Sol |title=The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html |access-date=24 December 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 27, 1971}}</ref> Mitchell moved to New York City in 1968.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="Murphy 2022" />
-As a [[third party (United States)|third-party]] candidate in the [[1968 United States presidential election|election of 1968]], Mitchell was the first [[African-American|Black]] woman to run for [[President of the United States]].<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Nittle |first1=Nadra Kareem |title=Black Women Who Have Run for President |url=https://www.history.com/news/black-women-president-candidates |website=HISTORY |date=February 10, 2021|access-date=14 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref> She represented the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) and her running mate was Michael "Mike" Zagarell, the National Youth Director of the party. They were entered on the ballots in only four states.<ref name="Risen 2022" /> Mitchell's brother and sister-in-law Franklin and Kendra Alexander had also been active in the party.
+As a [[third party (United States)|third-party]] candidate in the [[1968 United States presidential election|election of 1968]], Mitchell was the first [[African-American|Black]] woman to run for [[President of the United States]].<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Nittle |first1=Nadra Kareem |title=Black Women Who Have Run for President |url=https://www.history.com/news/black-women-president-candidates |website=HISTORY |date=February 10, 2021|access-date=14 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref> She represented the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) and her running mate was Michael "Mike" Zagarell, the National Youth Director of the party.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mitchell, Charlene (CPUSA) |url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/12163 |website=Texas Scholar Works |publisher=[[University of Texas at Austin]] |access-date=25 December 2022}}</ref> They were entered on the ballots in only four states and received about 1000 votes.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="Murphy 2022" />
 [[File:Smithsonian - NMAAHC - The Fight to Free Angela Davis- Its Importance for the Working Class- NMAAHC 2010.55.101.jpg|left|thumb|150px|''The Fight to Free Angela Davis'' by Charlene Mitchell (1972)]]
-After Davis was arrested in 1970, Mitchell led efforts to support her defense.<ref name="Risen 2022" /> Mitchell worked with Kendra Alexander and Franklin Alexander on the campaign to free Davis,<ref>Stern, Sol. [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html "The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee"], ''The New York Times'', July 27, 1971: "The committee dynamo is 30-year-old Franklin Alexander, who has been working for the Communist party for 12 years. Alexander's sister is Charlene Mitchell, a high-ranking American Communist who was the party's candidate for President in 1968."</ref> including as an investigator for the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and with a small team and Davis to coordinate political and legal defenses.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aptheker |first1=Bettina |title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis |date=1997 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8014-7014-1 |page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yA9vwr6g8cMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |access-date=24 December 2022}}</ref> After the acquittal of Davis in 1972, Mitchell founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, with a focus on police brutality.<ref name="Risen 2022" /> Mitchell also campaigned on behalf of [[Joan Little]] and the [[Wilmington Ten]].<ref name="Boyd 2022" />
+After Davis was arrested in 1970, Mitchell led efforts to support her defense.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="Murphy 2022" /> Mitchell worked with Kendra and Franklin Alexander on the campaign to free Davis, including as an investigator for the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and with a small team and Davis to coordinate political and legal defenses.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aptheker |first1=Bettina |title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis |date=1997 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8014-7014-1 |page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yA9vwr6g8cMC |access-date=24 December 2022}}</ref><ref name="Stern 1971"/>
-Davis described the effort to free her, spearheaded by Mitchell, as "one of the most impressive mass international campaigns of the 20th century" and "I have never known anyone as consistent in her values, as collective in her outlook on life, as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter."<ref name="McNeil 2009"/>
+According to Sol Stern at the ''[[New York Times]]'' in 1971, it was "the best-organized, most broad-based defense effort in the recent history of radical political trials--more potent that that afforded to any of the [[Black Panther Party|Panther]] leaders or the [[Chicago Seven]]."<ref name="Stern 1971" /> Davis later described the effort as "one of the most impressive mass international campaigns of the 20th century" and said about Mitchell, "I have never known anyone as consistent in her values, as collective in her outlook on life, as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter."<ref name="McNeil 2009"/>
+After the acquittal of Davis in 1972, Mitchell founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, with a focus on police brutality and the legal system.<ref name="Risen 2022" /><ref name="Murphy 2022" /> Mitchell also campaigned on behalf of the defenses of [[Joan Little]] and the [[Wilmington Ten]].<ref name="Boyd 2022" /><ref name="Murphy 2022" />
-In [[1988 United States Senate election in New York|1988]], Mitchell ran as an [[Independent Progressive]] for [[United States Congressional Delegations from New York|U.S. Senator from New York]] against the incumbent [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]]. He was re-elected by a large margin. Mitchell received 0.2% of the vote to finish fourth out of seven candidates, ahead of the candidates from the [[Workers World Party]], [[Libertarian Party of New York|Libertarian Party]] and [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]].<ref>[http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3550 New York Senate race details] at ''OurCampaigns.com''.</ref>
+Mitchell began to focus on anti-apartheid efforts in the 1970s, and visited [[Nelson Mandela]] in [[South Africa]] after his release from prison in 1990.<ref name="Murphy 2022" /> [[Benjamin Chavis]] has said that in the 1980s, [[James Baldwin]] referred to Mitchell as "the Joan of Arc of Harlem" because "she dares to utter unspeakable truth to power."<ref name="Murphy 2022" />
-While Mitchell had long been a Communist Party member, she and other reform-minded people wanted changes. African Americans were unhappy with the leadership of [[Gus Hall]], as they believed he failed to recognize the international Communist Party members' responsibility for problems in the Soviet Union and other European nations. They planned a reform movement and matters came to a head at a convention in December 1991. Many who signed a letter urging reform were purged by Gus Hall from the CPUSA's national committee, including Mitchell, [[Angela Davis]], Kendra Alexander and other African-American leaders.<ref>Erwin Marquit and Doris G. Marquit, [http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1992/02/19/Party_survives,_but_as_a_shell.txt "Party survives, but as a shell"]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311011756/http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1992/02/19/Party_survives%2C_but_as_a_shell.txt |date=March 11, 2007 }}, ''Minnesota Daily'', February 19, 1992. Accessed February 12, 2006.</ref>  Others who left the Party then included [[Herbert Aptheker]], Gil Green, and [[Michael Myerson]].<ref>
-{{cite web
-| date       = 1993
-| title      = Crisis in the CPUSA: Interview with Charlene Mitchell
-| url        = https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03006/07lv03075/08lv03082.htm
-| publisher    = University of the Western Cape
-| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>
+In [[1988 United States Senate election in New York|1988]], Mitchell ran as an [[Independent Progressive]] for [[United States Congressional Delegations from New York|U.S. Senator from New York]] against the incumbent [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]]. He was re-elected by a large margin. Mitchell received 0.2% of the vote to finish fourth out of seven candidates, ahead of the candidates from the [[Workers World Party]], [[Libertarian Party of New York|Libertarian Party]] and [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]].<ref>[http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3550 New York Senate race details] at ''OurCampaigns.com''.</ref>
-In 1993, Mitchell attended the Foro de São Paulo in [[Havana]] as an observer from the CCDS.<ref>James, Joy, ''Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals'' (Routledge, 1997).</ref> In 1994 she served as an official international observer of the first democratic elections in post-apartheid [[South Africa]]<ref>William Minter, Gail Hovey, and [[Charles E. Cobb Jr.|Charles Cobb Jr.]] (eds), [http://www.noeasyvictories.org/select/11_hovey.php "'Faces Filled with Joy': The 1994 South African Election"], from ''No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000''. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2007.</ref> and was an observer at the congress of the [[South African Communist Party]] that year. Also in 1994, she visited [[Namibia]] as a guest of the mines and energy ministry.
+After the death of prominent CPUSA member [[Henry Winston]] in 1986, Mitchell and other party members questioned the direction of the party.<ref name="Murphy 2022" /> They planned a reform movement and matters came to a head at a convention in December 1991. Many who signed a letter urging reform were purged by [[Gus Hall]] from the CPUSA's national committee, including Mitchell, [[Angela Davis]], Kendra Alexander and other African-American leaders.<ref>Erwin Marquit and Doris G. Marquit, [http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1992/02/19/Party_survives,_but_as_a_shell.txt "Party survives, but as a shell"]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311011756/http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1992/02/19/Party_survives%2C_but_as_a_shell.txt |date=March 11, 2007 }}, ''Minnesota Daily'', February 19, 1992. Accessed February 12, 2006.</ref>  Others who left the Party then included [[Herbert Aptheker]], Gil Green, and [[Michael Myerson]].<ref>{{cite web| date = 1993
+| title = Crisis in the CPUSA: Interview with Charlene Mitchell| url = https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03006/07lv03075/08lv03082.htm
+| publisher = University of the Western Cape| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>
+Mitchell became an elected leader of the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]] (CCDS) in the 1990s.<ref name="Boyd 2022" /> In 1993, Mitchell attended the Foro de São Paulo in [[Havana]] as an observer from the CCDS.<ref>James, Joy, ''Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals'' (Routledge, 1997).</ref> In 1994 she served as an official international observer of the [[1994 South African general election|first democratic elections]] in post-apartheid [[South Africa]],<ref>William Minter, Gail Hovey, and [[Charles E. Cobb Jr.|Charles Cobb Jr.]] (eds), [http://www.noeasyvictories.org/select/11_hovey.php "'Faces Filled with Joy': The 1994 South African Election"], from ''No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000''. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2007.</ref> where Nelson Mandela was elected president.<ref name="Murphy 2022" />
-As of 2006, Mitchell was active in the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]] (CCDS), an independent offshoot of the Communist Party.
 ==Personal life and death==
-Mitchell married Bill Mitchell in 1950 and they had a son in 1951.<ref name="Boyd 2022" /> After their divorce, she married Michael Welch and they later divorced.<ref name="Risen 2022" /> She experienced a stroke in 2007.<ref name="Risen 2022" /> Mitchell died in New York City’s Amsterdam Nursing Home on December 14, 2022, at the age of 92.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charlene Mitchell, Leader of the Campaign To Free Angela Davis |url=https://portside.org/2022-12-18/charlene-mitchell-leader-campaign-free-angela-davis |access-date=19 December 2022 |publisher=Portside |date=18 December 2022}}</ref>
+Mitchell married Bill Mitchell in 1950 and they had a son in 1951.<ref name="Boyd 2022" /> After their divorce, she married Michael Welch and they later divorced.<ref name="Risen 2022" /> In 2007, she experienced a stroke.<ref name="Boyd 2022" /><ref name="Risen 2022" /> Mitchell died in New York City’s Amsterdam Nursing Home on December 14, 2022, at the age of 92.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charlene Mitchell, Leader of the Campaign To Free Angela Davis |url=https://portside.org/2022-12-18/charlene-mitchell-leader-campaign-free-angela-davis |access-date=19 December 2022 |publisher=Portside |date=18 December 2022}}</ref>
 ==Selected works==
-*''The Fight to Free Angela Davis: Its Importance for the Working Class'', New York: New Outlook Publishers (1972), {{ISBN|0-87898-085-7}}
+*''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31888239 The Fight to Free Angela Davis: Its Importance for the Working Class]'', New York: New Outlook Publishers (1972), {{ISBN|0-87898-085-7}}
 *''Equality: its time has come'', New York: New Outlook Publishers (1985)
@@ Line 49: / Line 65: @@
 ==External links==
+* [https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/12326/Mitchell_Bibliography.pdf Charlene Mitchell Bibliography: Presidential Candidate, Communist Party USA (CPUSA), 1968] ([[University of Texas at Austin]], UT Libraries)
 * [https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/220770 "Charlene Mitchell on 1968 Presidential Election Laws"]. The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive.
 * Lisa Brock interviewed Mitchell in her home in Harlem in 2004 - among the topics raised were anti-colonialism, [[Pan-Africanism]] and the internationalism of the Communist Party USA. [http://www.noeasyvictories.org/interviews/int04_mitchell.php "Interviews for No Easy Victories: Charlene Mitchell".] 2004. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
@@ Line 61: / Line 78: @@
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 {{S-end}}
-{{Authority control}}
 {{Communist Party USA Presidential Candidates}}
 {{United States presidential election, 1968}}
+{{Authority control}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Charlene}}
 [[Category:1930 births]]
 [[Category:2022 deaths]]
-[[Category:Politicians from Cincinnati]]
+[[Category:20th-century African-American politicians]]
-[[Category:Moody Bible Institute alumni]]
+[[Category:20th-century African-American women]]
-[[Category:Candidates in the 1968 United States presidential election]]
 [[Category:20th-century American politicians]]
-[[Category:African-American people in New York (state) politics]]
-[[Category:African-American women in politics]]
-[[Category:Female candidates for President of the United States]]
-[[Category:African-American candidates for President of the United States]]
-[[Category:Communist Party USA politicians]]
 [[Category:20th-century American women politicians]]
-[[Category:20th-century African-American women]]
+[[Category:21st-century African-American politicians]]
-[[Category:20th-century African-American politicians]]
-[[Category:21st-century African-American people]]
 [[Category:21st-century African-American women]]
+[[Category:African-American candidates for President of the United States]]
+[[Category:African-American people in New York (state) politics]]
+[[Category:20th-century African-American women politicians]]
+[[Category:Candidates in the 1968 United States presidential election]]
+[[Category:Communist Party USA politicians]]
+[[Category:Female candidates for President of the United States]]
+[[Category:Moody Bible Institute alumni]]
+[[Category:Politicians from Cincinnati]]
+[[Category:Writers from Cincinnati]]