Breaking the Barrier Between Mississippi and the Rest of the World
The creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was to challenge the seating of the state democratic party at the national convention in Atlantic City that August. Over the course of the summer, the MFDP began to grow and organized parallel precinct, county, district meetings. There, they discussed problems that the community was facing and passed resolutions. In August 1964, 2,500 Black Mississippians gathered for a state convention, where they crafted a political platform and selected 68 delegates for the challenge.
The Johnson administration was fearful of how white southerners might react should the MFDP be seated. Despite a moving testimony by Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, the MFDP was only granted a measly two seats as a “compromise.” It felt, to many, like a betrayal.
I think for us, at least for me, the exercise of such raw power not in the interests of people who were trying to play by the rules and so forth, informs me in a way that nothing else could have informed me. –Courtland Cox, Session 4 page 71
The idea was that MFDP might rupture the Party. That was what people were accusing us.—Bob Moses, Session 5, page 7
So, here’s this Black woman [Hazel Palmer] running this washeteria in that reality, but in her mind, she’s carrying a whole other reality. A reality that she can use to actually help transform other people’s reality. It’s a remarkable experience. –Bob Moses, Session 5 page 25
Although the challenge did not turn out as desired, the nation was watching. The MFDP offered a model for what might be possible. It also had an impact on the people who went. Many were galvanized to take on leadership roles that ultimately shaped the state of Mississippi in the years to come.
That out of the SNCC and CORE field secretaries together with the local NAACP chapters, COFO emerges. COFO provides a platform out of which MFDP emerges. There’s this embedding and then the disintegration happens in the reverse order. MFPD gets turned down, COFO disintegrates, SNCC follows suit. –Bob Moses, Session 5 page 17
Part 5: Becoming the People and Lessons Learned Along the Way
