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Victoria Gray's 1964 campaign for the U.S. Senate

Why Victoria Gray ran for the U.S. Senate against John Stennis in 1964 as a Freedom Democrat, how the campaign worked and what it showed about Mississippi voting.

By the FLH Info Editorial Team · Updated November 6, 2026 · 2 min read

In short

In 1964 Victoria Gray of Hattiesburg challenged Senator John C. Stennis, a powerful segregationist, in the Democratic primary and then on the Freedom Democrats' parallel ballot. She was the first woman from Mississippi to run for the U.S. Senate. She had no chance of winning while most Black Mississippians were barred from voting; the campaign's purpose was to put Black candidates before the public, organize voters, and document the exclusion.

Year: 1964
Office: U.S. Senate, Mississippi
Opponent: Sen. John C. Stennis (Democrat, in office since 1947)
Party: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Distinction: First woman from Mississippi to run for the U.S. Senate
Other MFDP candidates: Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine and others

Red-brick Sunflower County Courthouse in Indianola with a white columned portico and a flagpole — The Sunflower County Courthouse in Indianola, the county seat, photographed in 2009. Photo: Jimmy Emerson from Dalton GA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Why did Victoria Gray run for the Senate?

In 1964 the Freedom Democrats decided to run Black candidates for Congress to show that Black Mississippians wanted to take part in government and to give organizers a reason to hold meetings everywhere. Victoria Gray took on the hardest race, against Senator John C. Stennis, who had held the seat since 1947 and was a leading opponent of civil rights laws in the Senate. Fannie Lou Hamer ran against Representative Jamie Whitten in the Second District the same year, and other MFDP candidates ran elsewhere.

How did the campaign work?

Gray filed in the June Democratic primary, campaigned in churches and homes across the state, and then ran again on the MFDP's Freedom Election ballot in the fall after officials kept her off the November ballot. The Freedom Election, like the 1963 Freedom Vote, was a parallel vote open to anyone. Its purpose was to collect a record of what Black Mississippians would do if allowed to vote.

What did the campaign achieve?

She did not win, but her race, together with Hamer's and Annie Devine's, made the case that the official 1964 elections in Mississippi were not legitimate. The Freedom Democrats used those results to challenge the seating of Mississippi's congressmen in January 1965; see the Congressional Challenge. The Mississippi Encyclopedia calls her the first woman from Mississippi to run for the U.S. Senate.

Why is this page called adams.html?

The address comes from an earlier site on this domain. We kept it so links still work and used it for one chapter of Victoria Gray Adams's life; her full biography is on victoria_adams.html.

Questions readers ask

Did Victoria Gray win any votes?

She lost the official primary, in which few Black citizens could vote, and her name was kept off the November ballot. In the MFDP's own Freedom Election she received the votes of Black Mississippians who took part.

Why run campaigns that could not win?

Campaigns gave organizers a reason to hold meetings, explain voting and build a party, and the results showed how badly the official system excluded Black citizens. That record fed the 1965 Congressional Challenge.

Sources

Victoria Gray AdamsMississippi Encyclopedia
Victoria Gray AdamsSNCC Digital Gateway
Fannie Lou HamerSNCC Digital Gateway

We checked every date and name on this page against the sources above. If you find an error, write to contact@fannielouhamer.info.