Socialists

Most African Americans did not consider the Socialist Party to be a truly viable electoral alternative. While the August 1912 edition of The Crisis was encouraging African Americans to demand specific returns on their votes, supporting the Socialist Party seemed to many people to be wasting possible influence.

The same editorial, encouraging readers to vote pragmatically and support Wilson, concluded, "Of Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist candidate, we can only say this frankly; if it lay in our power to make him President of the United States we would do so, for of the four men mentioned [the major candidates] he alone, by word and deed, stands squarely on a platform of human rights regardless of race or class." Unfortunately for him and his sympathizers, Debs also stood alone at the rear of the pack of candidates.

For information on race in the 1912 election and on the other parties' efforts, see the pages on the Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives.