In 1964, Mississippi native Clifton DeBerry ran for President of the United States on the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) ticket, with fellow SWP member Ed Shaw from Illinois as his running mate. DeBerry’s civil rights activism and his association with the Community Party (and later the SWP) began in the 1950s. DeBerry was the party’s first African American candidate for President, and while some sources cite him as the first African American candidate of any party, his bid was preceded by Clennon King (Independent Afro-American Party, 1960) and George Edwin Taylor (National Negro Liberty Party, 1904).