Aaron Henry, Civil Rights and MFDP Leader

Aaron Henry, Civil Rights and MFDP Leader

Entitled: "Aaron Henry, chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation, speaks before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey." The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement. It was organized by African Americans from Mississippi, with assistance from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), to challenge the legitimacy of the then-white-only Mississippi Democratic Party. The MFDP sent its elected delegates by bus to the Democratic National Convention in New Jersey. There they challenged the right of the Mississippi Democratic Party's delegation to participate in the convention, claiming that the regulars had been illegally elected in a completely segregated process that violated both party regulations and federal law, and that furthermore the regulars had no intention of supporting Lyndon B. Johnson, the party's presidential candidate, in the November election. Aaron Henry (July 2, 1922 - May 19, 1997) was an American civil rights leader, politician, head of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, and one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Photographed by Warren K. Leffler, August, 1964.

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4800 x 3181 px | 43.7 MB

40.6 x 26.9 cm | 16.0 x 10.6 in (300 dpi)