Helen Halyard

Helen Halyard (born 1951) was a third-party candidate for President of the United States in the 1992 presidential election, representing the Socialist Equality Party, also called the Workers League. One of the relatively few African-American candidates to run for president, she had previously run twice as their vice-presidential candidate, as Edward Winn's running mate, also African-American.
She ran for the United States House of Representatives from New York's 14th congressional district in 1974, losing to Fred Richmond. In 1976 she ran for the House again, for New York's 19th congressional district, losing to incumbent Charles B. Rangel.
In 1982 she ran against and lost to incumbent Donald W. Riegle, Jr. for United States Senator from Michigan. She was the party's candidate for Vice President of the United States in 1984. She also ran for Mayor of Detroit in 1985 and 1989.
Living in Detroit, Michigan in 1988, she was then the chair of the party's presidential effort, having to lead a petition to get onto the ballot in Alabama, and criticized Jesse Jackson's campaign. She ran again for Congress from Michigan in 1994, in which she was allowed into a debate with the major party candidates, winning 1,329 votes in the election and losing to Lynn N. Rivers and again in 1996.
As a member of the editorial board of the party's website in 2002 she continued to criticize Jackson, as well as the Workers World Party, for being, in her opinion, too close to the Democrats. She was serving as the Assistant National Secretary of the party in 2008.
Halyard has also criticized the use and legitimization of African-American Vernacular English, claiming that it's a "misuse of grammar" and that academics promote its use in order "to preserve all the rot of society."

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