The 1968 Democratic convention and the Mississippi Loyalists

How did the 1964 promise lead to 1968?

When the MFDP rejected the two-seat compromise in 1964, the national party still adopted its other part: a rule that delegations chosen through racial discrimination would not be seated in the future. A special committee worked out standards over the next four years. By 1968 Mississippi's regular party had not opened its process to Black voters in any meaningful way, even though the Voting Rights Act had added tens of thousands of Black Mississippians to the rolls.

Who made up the Loyalist delegation?

The Loyal Democrats of Mississippi were a coalition that joined the Freedom Democrats with the state NAACP, union members, Young Democrats and white moderates. Aaron Henry, who had led the MFDP delegation in 1964, was a leader, and newspaper editor Hodding Carter III was among the white members. Lawrence Guyot, the MFDP chairman, was also a delegate, according to the Civil Rights Movement Archive's profile of him. The coalition held its own open precinct and county meetings and claimed to be the true Mississippi party.

What happened in Chicago?

The Credentials Committee voted to seat the Loyalists, and the regulars were turned away. The Chicago convention is remembered mostly for the antiwar protests outside it and police violence in the streets. Inside, the Mississippi decision went through with far less drama than in 1964. Hamer took her seat as a delegate.

What did Hamer make of it?

She welcomed the seating but kept criticizing a party that, in her view, still did too little for poor people in the Delta. In speeches after 1968 she said political rights had to come with food, jobs and land. The next year she started the Freedom Farm Cooperative, and in 1971 she helped found the National Women's Political Caucus. She went to the convention again as a delegate in 1972.

Why is this page called conference.html?

The address was used by an earlier site on this domain for an event page. We kept it so that links still work and used it for the 1968 convention, which closed the story of the convention challenges.