The 1965 Congressional Challenge: Hamer, Devine and Gray

What was the legal argument?

The Constitution makes each house of Congress the judge of the elections of its own members, and the MFDP argued that elections held under systematic disfranchisement were not valid. In 1964 fewer than one in ten voting-age Black Mississippians was registered. The MFDP said that the five men elected that November, Thomas Abernethy, Jamie Whitten, Prentiss Walker, John Bell Williams and William Colmer, did not represent the people of their districts.

To show what a fair vote might look like, the MFDP had held a parallel Freedom Election in the fall, open to anyone, with Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray on its ballot. On the strength of those votes it named the three women as contestants for seats in the Second, Fourth and Fifth Districts.

What happened on January 4, 1965?

When the new Congress opened, Representative William Fitts Ryan of New York objected to swearing in the Mississippi delegation, and the House voted 276 to 149 to go ahead. The House Office of the Historian records that the Mississippi members were then sworn in under a resolution adopted by voice vote. Capitol Police kept Hamer, Devine and Gray out of the chamber. Hundreds of MFDP supporters who had come to Washington stood in silent vigil outside and lined the tunnels members used to reach the floor.

The 149 votes for Ryan's position surprised many observers. Hamer told reporters that the vote showed some people in America cared about democracy.

How was the evidence gathered?

Under federal law on contested elections, the challengers could take sworn depositions, and in early 1965 volunteer lawyers from across the country came to Mississippi to record testimony from hundreds of witnesses. Black citizens described being turned away by registrars, fired, evicted and threatened for trying to vote. The record ran to thousands of pages.

Organizers also lobbied in Washington. Annie Devine, Victoria Gray and Hamer traveled north repeatedly to meet members of Congress and speak at churches and colleges.

How did it end?

In September 1965 the House voted to dismiss the challenge, after the women had been allowed onto the House floor to watch the debate. By then the Voting Rights Act had been signed, on August 6, and supporters of dismissal argued that the new law would fix the problem. The SNCC Digital Gateway describes Devine as one of the first three Black women to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives, with Hamer and Gray.

The challenge led to congressional investigations of Mississippi voting practices, and SNCC veterans and historians count it among the pressures that produced a strong Voting Rights Act. The Civil Rights Movement Archive's profile of Lawrence Guyot, the MFDP's chairman, calls the challenge key to passing a strong Voting Rights Act.

Why is this page at b.html?

This address comes from an earlier site on this domain. We kept it so old links work and used it for the 1965 challenge, which completes the story begun on our MFDP page.