As you are probably well aware the Democratic Convention is going strong in Chicago and by all accounts it is a huge success (the words of political analyst for the MSM not mine)….

But let us walk back 60 years to 1964 when there was a bit of an ugly incident. (That’s right yet another chance for me to inject some history into your dreary lives)

1964 I was entering into my junior year of high school and my Leftist leanings were becoming more pronounced.

These were the dark days of segregation in Mississippi and blacks were fighting for the rights….especially the right of voting.

Ever hear of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party?

The place is Atlantic City, New Jersey….

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was founded on April 26, 1964 as part of a voter registration project for African Americans in the state.  For over half a century Mississippi blacks had attempted to attend regular Democratic Party meetings and conventions but were continually denied entry.  They formed the MFDP, which welcomed both whites and blacks, to run several candidates for the Senate and Congressional elections on June 2, 1964.

Attempting to get members to join the MFDP angered most white Mississippians who often responded with violence.  During the Freedom Summer of 1964, three men, Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, who were associated with the MFDP, disappeared and were later found dead with fatal gunshot wounds.  The one African American man was beaten so badly for attempting to register to vote that his bones had been crushed.  This defiance by Mississippi’s white majority propelled the MFDP to get its delegates into the upcoming national convention to replace the “regular” Democrats.

The regular Democrats wanted to seat an all-white delegation at the 1964 National Democratic Convention which met in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  The MFDP protested.  Supporters of the MFDP came from all over the United States to support their protest.  Eventually a compromise proposal orchestrated by Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey offered the MFDP two non-voting seats next to the regular Mississippi delegates.  However, the MFDP refused the offer because it denied them any chance of voting on the floor of the convention.  MFDP leader Fannie Lou Hamer spoke before the convention rules committee explaining the position of the party and why the compromise offered was unacceptable.

While the MFDP ultimately failed in its goal of gaining seats at the Democratic National Convention, it was ultimately successful as its story in Atlantic City reminded the country of the ongoing battle Southern blacks faced in gaining full citizenship rights.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed two months before the Convention, did not address the right to vote.  African Americans in Mississippi and across the nation vowed to continue to press for full voting rights.  The MFDP’s role in that struggle helped pave the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

(blackpast.org)

As per usual for the day racism and bias won out and the delegates were not seated and were treated with suspicion and hatred.

Members of the MFDP went to Atlantic City believing that their planned contest of the seats assigned to the state party had a reasonable chance of success. In reality, the MFDP leadership received an education on how politics at the national level operated. While a number of MFDP delegates sincerely believed that moral persuasion would lead the DNC to refuse the regular state party the state’s allotment of seats, President Johnson had his own agenda. Johnson, running without opposition for the nomination for president, wanted a smooth convention. He feared a southern walkout if the DNC seated the MFDP. Johnson ordered the FBI to wiretap the MFDP office, as well as the hotel rooms of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin. Johnson knew the positions of civil rights groups and key leaders throughout the convention. He also threatened the patronage of those who might have been inclined to support the MFDP. In addition, he coerced Walter Reuther, the head of the United Auto Workers union, to threaten to cut off financial support to SNCC and the MFDP in Mississippi if the challenge was not withdrawn.

This threat did not alter the determination of the protestors. Before a televised hearing of the Credentials Committee, the deeply affecting testimony of Fannie Lou Hamer led Johnson to stage a news conference in an effort to stop public opinion from mounting to the point that he had to give seats to the MFDP. Johnson forced Hubert Humphrey to try to convince the challengers not to go forward. This was a test of Humphrey’s personal loyalty, and Johnson told him the vice presidential position on the ticket depended on how he handled the controversy. Humphrey offered the MFDP two seats representing the state of Mississippi, and the rest of the MFDP delegation were to be “honored guests” at the convention. The MFDP refused this offer, demanding at least the seats proportionate to the state’s blacks of voting age. Unwilling to compromise, the challengers got no seats, but they did manage to obtain the credentials of sympathetic delegates from states that disapproved of the regular Mississippi delegation. Several members of the MFDP staged a sit-in demonstration on the convention floor, but security guards quickly removed the protestors.

MFDP members left the convention embittered by their experience. Feeling betrayed by the actions of northern liberals and civil rights moderates such as King and Rustin who had supported the compromise option proposed by Humphrey, the MFDP and SNCC became more militant after the convention. The DNC did unseat the regular Mississippi Democrats in 1968 (as promised at the 1964 convention) when the state party persisted in denying access to blacks. As a consequence of this action, the Mississippi Democratic Party ended the discriminatory practices and customs it had used to exclude blacks from meaningful participation in party affairs.

(encyclopedia.com)

This was a valiant attempt to gain recognition but sadly the forces of racism won the day but that was short-lived….then came the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

There you have my little slice of history from my state of Mississippi.

Now as the Right attempts to limit and even stop some citizens from voting the valor of those people should be a beacon to not roll over and never play dead.

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“lego ergo scribo”