The Green Part was formed in May 1984 as the Green Movement Committee. While the United States's Green Party was only starting up, they took inspiration from the already established West German Green Party. Based off of the German's Four Pillars of ecology, social justice, grassroots-democracy, and non-violence, the U.S. Green Party adapted a similar ideology. In fact, the Green Party U.S. still go by the Ten Key Values, a set of foundations for the party.
In 1987, the party held its first national meeting at Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts. The Second National Green Gathering was held two years later in Eugene, Oregon. In 1991, the party officially adopted the name Greens/Green Party U.S.A.
In 1996, the party ran for the presidential election for the first time. With its candidate Ralph Nader, the Green Party secured close to 700,000 votes despite only appearing on the ballots for 22 states. Considering that the Libertarian Party who had their candidate on all ballots only polled in 490,000 votes, the Green Party was growing remarkably fast.
However, the late 1990's saw the emergence of separate green parties. For example, the Association for State Green Parties founded in 1996 had thirteen states join in. While there have been efforts to unify the parties, this struggle continues, in a sense, still to this day.
The presidential election of 2000 was more successful than the previous one. With Nader still representing the Green Party, 2.8 million votes (around 3% of the total) went for the Green candidate. However, Nader would split from the party and run as an individual party member in later elections, splitting votes. Because of this, the Green Party has yet to achieve more votes than in the 2000 presidential election race.
For the 2016 elections, Green member Jill Stein, who also ran for the 2012 elections, will be representing the Green Party.
Philosophy
To simplify everything, here's a list of the Green Party's Ten Key Values:
Grassroots DemocracySocial Justice and Equal Opportunity
Ecological Wisdom
Non-violence
Decentralization
Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice
Feminism and Gender Equity
Respect for Diversity
Personal and Global Responsibility
Future Focus and Sustainability.
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