The 2018 Anti-Corruption Awards celebrated the 30-year anniversary of Dr. Lenora Fulani’s groundbreaking 1988 independent presidential campaign in which she became the first woman and first African-American in U.S. history to get on the ballot in all 50 states. One hundred and fifty guests gathered at Houston Hall in lower Manhattan for the annual fundraiser, cocktail reception and awards ceremony.
Dr. Fulani is pictured here with event speakers who paid tribute to her and the herculean effort by her campaign team, many of them in attendance, for gathering the 1.2 million signatures needed to put her on the ballot. Fulani’s historic campaign laid down many of the tracks and challenges for the independent movement. The issues of the fundamental structure of our democracy, whether all voters and candidates had a level playing field, whether the debates served the American people or the parties and the role of the African-American community in the movement to revitalize our democracy were core themes of her independent presidential campaigns in both 1988 and 1992.
Today, those themes have moved from the fringes of American political life to center stage as issues of process and rules become more and more urgent, and a broad array of organizations, reformers, candidates and activists have taken them up. The event was sponsored by Independent Voting and the New York City Independence Clubs Tuesday, Oct. 16.