Julius Hobson

Julius W. Hobson (May 29, 1919 — March 23, 1977) was the People's Party Vice Presidential candidate in 1972. Benjamin Spock was the People's Party Presidential candidate. They polled 0.1014% of the popular vote and no electoral votes.[1]

Hobson was also a "key early founder" of the D.C. Statehood Party. In 1971, he ran as a member of the party to be the District's delegate to the House of Representatives but lost to Democrat Walter E. Fauntroy.[2] Hobson was elected in 1974 as one of the at-large members of the Council of the District of Columbia at its creation, and he served in that position until his death in 1977.[3]

FBI Informant

In 1981, the Washington Post revealed that documents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file on Hobson revealed that he had once provided information to the FBI about the black freedom movement.[4] It reported that

"There are 29 specific reports over a five-year period of Hobson giving information to agents contained in the massive 1,575-page file obtained by The Post through the Freedom assembled the file on Hobson over a nearly 20-year period from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The file indicates, among other things, that Hobson gave the FBI information on advanced planning for the historic March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and was paid $100 to $300 in expenses to monitor and report on civil rights demonstration plans at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. On another occasion, he reported on a 1965 meeting in Detroit involving a revolutionary black group and, on still another, he warned agents of possible violence at a Philadelphia demonstration that same year, according to the file."

The article also reported that FBI Agent Elmer Lee Todd "said he met regularly with Hobson -- sometimes as often as twice a month -- from about 1961 to late 1964, mostly to discuss and assess potentially violent or disruptive demonstrations, organizations and individuals in the civil rights movement." The article does not indicate that Hobson, who was also monitored by the FBI for his activism, provided information to the FBI after 1965.

In 1995, Cartha DeLoach, the third most senior official in the FBI, described Hobson as “a paid FBI informant” in his book, Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant.[5]

Quotes

Hobson quotations from Sam Smith's "Captive Capital"[6]

On democracy: "In this country, you don't have any democracy really. You have the right to elect but not to select. For example, here's two people: you get to vote for one of them. But you didn't choose in the first place either of them. That's not democracy from what I understand."
On being a politician: "I am not a politician. A politician is someone who does things to get elected. He's a guy who says things to please the public, that he thinks the public wants to hear, and his story changes with every passing day. I want to be elected, but I am not going to say a damn thing for your benefit, or that person's benefit out there on the street, or anybody's."
On a local black minister: "I was asked to speak at his church one Sunday. I went over there and when I went there I looked over the congregation. I would say the average person in there had on a pair of Thom McAn shoes, that their suits cost an average $35 a piece, that their shirts were from Hechts basements and that they were very poor and very illiterate - almost illiterate - people who were emotionally shocked just came to the church to let out this scream. [The minister] took up a love offering, he took up a minister's travel offering and then he took up a regular - he took up five or six offerings. So when he got to me to speak, I got up and said, 'God d*** it, if this is christianity, I want no part of it.' And 'this s** of a b**** is stealing from you and the thing is, he's not just stealing your money, he's stealing your minds. And I refuse to be a part of this.' And I walked off."

References

  1. ↑ "American Presidential Elections 1932-2000". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2005-12-17. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
  2. ↑ "Fauntroy Election Certified". The Washington Post. 1971-04-06. p. C6. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  3. ↑ "Historical Elected Officials: At-Large Member of the Council of the District of Columbia". District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  4. ↑ Paul Valentine, "FBI Records List Julius Hobson As Confidential Source' in '60s", Washington Post, May 22, 1981, p. A-1.
  5. ↑ http://google.com/books?id=jVRiOuBtBokC&lpg=PA7&ots=pJ94A2_e4K&dq=julius%20hobson%20fbi&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q=julius%20hobson&f=false
  6. ↑ Smith, Sam (1974). Captive Capital: colonial life in modern Washington (First edition ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 303 pages. ISBN 0-253-11070-X.

External links

Council of the District of Columbia
First
group of four
 At-Large Member,
Council of the District of Columbia
1975 – 1977 		Succeeded by
Hilda Mason