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Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

As DNC Kicks Off, Palestine Solidarity Activists Look To 1964 For Inspiration

August 20, 2024 Derek Seidman, Truthout. , , , ,
As the Democratic National Convention (DNC) 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. The nation saw a Democratic party in disarray. With mass protests occurring over Gaza at this year’s DNC — again, held in Chicago — the 1968 comparisons are apt. But there is another historical example also worth remembering. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the 1964 DNC in Atlantic City where, famously, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), a grassroots party fighting for racial justice, sent a delegation to demand that they, not the all-white “regular” delegation, be seated as Mississippi’s true representatives.

From Protest To Power

September 1, 2019 Mike Miller, Counterpunch. , , ,
August 1964, fifty-five years ago, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party presented itself to the national Democratic Party Convention seeking to be seated as the official party from that state. The predominantly black delegation wanted to deny seating to the all-white “regulars” who had earlier in the year denied Mississippi African-Americans the right to participate in precinct, county, congressional district and statewide meetings that nominated these delegates. MFDP presented itself to the Credentials Committee at which a decision would be made to seat one-or-another, or a mixed, body of delegates. MFDP and its allies proposed rejecting the “regulars”. It is likely that a Credentials Committee offer for a 50/50 delegate split would have been accepted by MFDP, in part because its members knew this policy would lead to a walk-out by the regulars.

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