Charlene Mitchell facts for kids
Charlene Alexander Mitchell (June 8, 1930 – December 14, 2022) was an important American activist. She worked for social change, women's rights, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 1968, she made history as the first Black woman to run for President of the United States.
In the 1970s, Charlene Mitchell helped lead efforts to support Angela Davis when she faced legal challenges. Mitchell also started the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. She worked to help people like Joan Little and the Wilmington Ten, who were also facing legal issues. Later, she focused on fighting against apartheid in South Africa.
Mitchell joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) when she was 16. She became one of the most important leaders in the party during the late 1950s and 1960s. After leaving the party, she became a leader of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) in the 1990s.
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Charlene Mitchell's Early Life and Education
Charlene Alexander was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 8, 1930. When she was nine, she moved with her parents and seven brothers and sisters to Chicago. Her parents had moved north during the Great Migration, when many Black Southerners moved to northern cities. During World War II, she grew up in Chicago and took classes at the Moody Bible Institute.
She joined the Communist Party USA at age 16. She had already joined a youth group called the American Youth for Democracy when she was 13. In the 1940s, Mitchell took part in an early protest against segregated seating in a theater. White students sat in the "colored only" balcony, and Black students sat in the "whites only" section. This protest helped end segregated seating there.
In Chicago, her father was a Pullman porter and a hod carrier. He was also a labor activist and worked for a politician named William L. Dawson. Mitchell went to Herzl Junior College in Chicago. In 1955, she moved to Los Angeles.
Charlene Mitchell's Political Journey
In 1958, Mitchell became part of the national committee of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). In 1959, she spoke before a group called the House Un-American Activities Committee. She refused to answer their questions and challenged their authority, which drew a lot of attention. In Los Angeles, she started the Che-Lumumba Club in the 1960s. This was an all-Black chapter of the CPUSA. Angela Davis worked with Mitchell and this club to organize protests. Mitchell's brother and sister-in-law, Franklin and Kendra Alexander, were also active in the Che-Lumumba Club. Mitchell moved to New York City in 1968.
In the 1968 election, Mitchell was a third-party candidate. She was the first Black woman to run for President of the United States. She represented the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Her running mate was Michael "Mike" Zagarell, who was the party's National Youth Director. They were on the ballot in only four states and received about 1000 votes.
After Angela Davis was arrested in 1970, Mitchell led efforts to support her. Mitchell worked with Kendra and Franklin Alexander on the campaign to help free Davis. She was an investigator for the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis. She also worked with a small team and Davis to plan both political and legal defenses.
A writer for The New York Times said in 1971 that it was "the best-organized, most broad-based defense effort" for a political trial in recent history. Angela Davis later called the effort "one of the most impressive mass international campaigns of the 20th century." She also said about Mitchell, "I have never known anyone as consistent in her values... as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter."
After Angela Davis was found not guilty in 1972, Mitchell started the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. This group focused on issues like police brutality and fairness in the legal system. Mitchell also worked to support Joan Little and the Wilmington Ten when they faced legal challenges.
Mitchell began to focus on fighting apartheid in the 1970s. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in South Africa. She visited Nelson Mandela in South Africa after he was released from prison in 1990. Benjamin Chavis said that in the 1980s, writer James Baldwin called Mitchell "the Joan of Arc of Harlem." This was because "she dares to utter unspeakable truth to power."
In 1988, Mitchell ran for U.S. Senator from New York. She ran as an Independent Progressive against the person already in office, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He won the election easily. Mitchell finished fourth out of seven candidates, getting 0.2% of the votes.
After a key CPUSA member, Henry Winston, died in 1986, Mitchell and others questioned the party's direction. They wanted to make changes. Things came to a head at a meeting in December 1991. Many who wanted reform were removed from the CPUSA's national committee by Gus Hall. This included Mitchell, Angela Davis, Kendra Alexander, and other African-American leaders. Other people who left the party then included Herbert Aptheker and Gil Green.
Mitchell became an elected leader of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) in the 1990s. In 1993, Mitchell went to a meeting in Havana as an observer for the CCDS. In 1994, she was an official international observer for the first democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa. Nelson Mandela was elected president in these elections.
Charlene Mitchell's Personal Life and Death
Mitchell married Bill Mitchell in 1950, and they had a son in 1951. After they divorced, she married Michael Welch, and they also later divorced. In 2007, she had a stroke. Charlene Mitchell passed away in New York City on December 14, 2022, at the age of 92.
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)
