The Freedom and Peace Party of New York State held its first convention at the Diplomat Hotel in New York City on June 2, 1968. This party was distinct from the California-based Peace and Freedom Party. Although the two parties were ideologically similar, they operated independently. The Freedom and Peace Party was conceived by peace groups, students, and black liberation groups who wanted to create a political party relevant to their needs. The party selected Dick Gregory as its presidential candidate and Mark Lane as its vice-presidential candidate in 1968. The party appeared on the ballots in five states and by organized write-in in twenty more. Richard “Dick” Claxton Gregory was born in St. Louis on October 12, 1932, to Presley and Lucille Gregory. The Gregory family lived in the Ville neighborhood. Gregory attended Sumner High School, where he excelled in track and field, and Southern Illinois University until he was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1954. While in the military, Gregory entered and won talent shows with his comedic abilities. After being discharged, he moved to Chicago where he began his comedy career. He met Lillian Estelle Smith in Chicago, and the couple married in 1959, a union which lasted fifty-nine years and produced eleven children. Lillian often traveled and protested with her husband. Gregory died on August 19, 2017, at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. Gregory had an early appreciation for the art of activism and politics, leading protests himself while in high school against overcrowding in the city's three black high schools. By 1963, Gregory was marching in Washington. He frequently returned to the Midwest to participate in civil rights activist causes including a 2002 protest around discriminatory clothing decrees made by the owners of Union Station, which were cited in the removal of the rapper Nelly from the premises a week prior, as well as the near shutdown of Highway 40 by MOKANN in 1999. Gregory was outspoken on a host of issues including feminism, environmentalism, free speech and disarmament, and later, in 2014, against police brutality on the streets of Ferguson in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death. Gregory was a prolific author beginning with From the Back of the Bus in 1962. He wrote with humor and sincerity about his aspirations as a presidential candidate in Write Me In! (1968). In addition to more humorous books based on his stand up, Gregory also wrote books about race, history, and biography including Nigger: An Autobiography (1964) and Callus on my Soul: A Memoir (2000).