60 years ago, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party forced the Democrats to confront Jim Crow within their own party.
Nadine Seiler, 59, from Waldorf, Maryland, attends the March For Bodies Against Unjust Laws rally along Michigan Ave to Grant Park, in Chicago, Illinois, on August 18, 2024.As the Democratic National Convention begins, and with Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza fracturing the party’s coalition, the echoes of 1968 are hard to miss. That year, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, protests erupted outside the DNC in Chicago, while tensions flared inside the convention.
Scorned by Lyndon Johnson and betrayed by liberal leaders, they suffered a short-term defeat. But today, the MFDP effort at the 1964 DNC is considered part of the heroic lore of the civil rights movement, even though it was denounced at the time by the liberal establishment.“A big lesson from this history is understanding that, in the moment, your protest is not necessarily going to be seen as righteous,”.
The MFDP attempted to register thousands of voters and organized dozens of precinct meetings in rural areas and cities alike. “The delegates were teachers, housewives, packinghouse workers, a toy factory worker, in short a genuine cross-section of the community,” Bringing the question to the floor had a major strategic advantage: it put the whole Democratic Party on the spot, in front of the entire nation, and would force it to take a decisive stance on voting rights.
Meanwhile, liberal leaders like United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther and even Rauh — who was also a UAW attorney — pushed for compromise, as did civil rights leaders likeSoon, the votes the MFDP needed for a roll call on the convention floor dipped below 11. The MFDP rank-and-file remained stalwartly opposed to anything less than being seated as a voting delegation. “We didn’t come all this way for no two seats,” Hamer famously remarked.
“There was a great disillusionment with the federal government,” said Hamlin. “People felt they couldn’t rely on the federal government and they needed to instead rely on themselves. That was the crux of Black Power.” Ultimately, says Hamlin, the story of MFDP shows that movements need to persist in their demands. “Local people need to fight for themselves,” she said.Sixty years later, Uncommitted delegates today are drawing inspiration from the sense of justice and determination of the MFDP.
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