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Biography/History:
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was officially established on April 26, 1964, at a Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) meeting in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi. The party identified three areas on which to focus its efforts: voter registration, fielding candidates to run for state political offices, and challenging the seating of regular delegates at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Roughly four months after its formal establishment (August 9, 1964), almost 2,500 county MFDP delegates met at Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Temple in Jackson to elect representatives to the national convention. On August 19, 1964, the delegates left for Atlantic City. The Regulars, as the Mississippi Democratic Party delegates were called, and selected MFDP delegates, including Edwin King and Fannie Lou Hamer, testified before the Credentials Committee. Ultimately, the Committee did not seat the MFDP delegates but instead offered them a compromise, which they refused. After the events in Atlantic City, the MFDP delegates returned to Mississippi, where most worked on behalf of the Lyndon Johnson/Hubert Humphrey ticket.
In 1965, the MFDP attempted to unseat Mississippi’s representatives in the United States Congress, claiming that the elections violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and, should therefore be declared invalid. The United States House of Representatives, believing that the 1965 Voting Rights Act would amend the existing situation, voted to allow the congressmen to remain seated. The MFDP then turned its attention to fielding candidates in the 1967 elections. Due largely to the efforts of the MFDP and those of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Young Democrats, twenty-two African Americans won office. Among the twenty-two was MFDP candidate Robert Clark, a school teacher from Holmes County, Mississippi. He became the first African American elected to the Mississippi Legislature since the end of Reconstruction.
The MFDP agreed to join with the NAACP Young Democrats in late June of 1967. Soon after, the Mississippi Teachers Association, the Prince Hall Masons, and the Mississippi AFL-CIO joined them. This coalition, named the Loyal Democrats of Mississippi (Loyalists), announced that they would challenge the regular delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
All of the major Democratic candidates openly supported the Loyalists’ challenge before the convention. In contrast to the treatment of the MFDP delegates at the 1964 convention, the Loyalist delegation was seated. However, the coalition was fragile. The MFDP delegates were unhappy being in a coalition with people that had not supported their 1964 challenge, the moderates. The MFDP delegates lobbied the rest of the coalition to support the minority platform plank opposing the war in Vietnam. When that plank was defeated by the convention, the Loyalists, led by the moderate coalition members, backed Hubert Humphrey, who was in favor of the war. The coalition reached a breaking point when Chicago police clashed violently with Vietnam protestors outside the convention. The MFDP delegates demanded that the Loyalists leave the convention floor in protest. The moderate members of the coalition prevailed and the delegation did not walk out of the convention.
After the convention, the MFDP continued to function in areas of the state where it had a strong base, such as Holmes County, but attempts to reorganize the party at the state level failed. Some members of the party chose to work with the Loyalists, while others worked outside a formal party structure. The MFDP ceased to function as a separate political party after 1968.
Scope and Content:
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Collection consists of correspondence, legal papers, and printed material documenting the party’s political and community activities.
Of interest is the legal papers series that contains a copy of the MFDP delegation’s challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Series Description:
This series contains correspondence sent by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to its constituents discussing various topics, such as a sterilization bill put before the legislature; and plans for Freedom Schools. Also included are copies of media statements.
This series contains copies of the 1964 Democratic Convention Challenge mounted by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as well as the lawsuit filed against the Democratic Party for denial of equal membership. Also included are an injunction the state of Mississippi filed against Edwin King and other MFDP officers to cease operating under the name Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party or Freedom Democratic Party; and photocopies of proposed legislation.
This series consists of flyers for Freedom Party political candidates, a Citizens’ Council literature request flyer, photocopies of newsclippings, and Democratic National Committee letterhead. Also included are photocopies of the The Drummer, which was billed as “Mississippi’s Black Community Newsletter.”
Folder List: