Daily LIFT #2102

Angela Davis Urges - Declare Your Independence - Vote for Hall and Tyner, CPUSA Election Poster, 1976 -- Daily LIFT #2102

In 1976, Gus Hall ran for President and Jarvis Tyner ran for Vice President representing the Communist Party USA, a campaign that promoted socialism and workers’ rights but received only a small fraction of the national vote.

Gus Hall was the Chairman of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and led the party’s effort to participate independently in U.S. presidential elections after the CPUSA withdrew its prior support from the Democratic Party in 1972. He ran for president four times: 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984.

Jarvis Tyner, born in 1941, was a civil rights activist and the Executive Vice Chair of the CPUSA. He had been active in civil rights, labor, and youth organizations, including leading efforts to desegregate lunch counters in Philadelphia and founding the Young Workers Liberation League. Tyner ran as Gus Hall’s running mate for vice president in 1972 and again in 1976.