Melvin T. Mason

Melvin T. Mason (born January 7, 1943) is an American politician who ran as Socialist Workers Party candidate for President of the United States in the 1984 United States presidential election. Mason became a star basketball player at Monterey High School. The Air Force gave Mason a bad conduct discharge in 1965. Mason believes that the bad conduct status was because he had objected to bad treatment of black servicemen. US Senator Thomas Kuchel had the discharged changed to honorable. and in 1970 he organized the Black United Farmworkers (UFW) support committee. and defeated Haddad. That next year, Mason ran for the Seaside City Council seat and won. 1984 – Ran as Socialist Workers Party candidate for United States President in the 1984 United States presidential election. A federal court decision codified the successful fifteen-year legal effort by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) regarding decades of spying and disruption by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

From 1996 until retirement in 2006, Mason worked at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). led to a new crisis intervention training for Monterey County police forces. In 2001 Mason was licensed as a clinical social worker (LCSW) by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. In 2002 Mason was elected President of the Monterey, California Peninsula chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for two consecutive terms Mason is the co-founder of The Village Project 1999 – KSBW Jefferson Award for Outstanding Volunteer Community Service 2002 –Baha'i 23rd Human Rights Award 2007 – Stephen E Ross award for community service and advocate for justice: awarded by the NAACP of the Monterey Peninsula designed to improve the long-term effectiveness of nonprofits by investing in the health and wellness of leaders and building staff capacity to manage operations (give them a sabbatical break.) 2018 – Monterey Peninsula College President's Award, shared with wife Regina Mason, for community service by MPC Alumni

Books about Mason and his times

Mel Mason: The Making of a Revolution (1982) . The trial of Leonard Peltier, Messerschmidt, James W. 1982 South End Press. Boston International Trotskyism, 1929–1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement, Alexander, R. J. (1991). Duke University Press. Voices of Change:the People's Oral History Project : interviews with Monterey County activists and organizers, 1934-2015 (2016) Karnes, Gary. Araujo, Karen. Martinez, Juan