Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964

Entitled: "African-American and white Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party supporters demonstrating outside the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey; some hold signs with portraits of slain civil rights workers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner." 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. They therefore asked that the MFDP delegates be seated rather than the segregationist regulars. Even though they were denied official recognition, the MFDP kept up their agitation within the Convention. Photographed by Warren K. Leffler, August, 1964.

Album / LOC/Science Source

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3932 x 4200 px | 47.2 MB

33.3 x 35.6 cm | 13.1 x 14.0 in (300 dpi)