Between the Covers

Unbound. Small broadside. Measuring 8½" x 11", printed recto only. Light creasing and an old horizontal fold, verso toned with two small, light stains that don't show through, very good. Also prints the names of the 16-member Honorary Citizen's Committee.

While Johnson and Humphrey's nomination for president and vice-president were all but secured, the convention became a pivotal moment in Civil Rights history when the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party claimed the seats for the Mississippi delegates. As opposed to the official, segregated Mississippi Democratic Party which had systematically excluded African-American voters, the MFDP had elected its delegates in line with party rules, i.e. regardless of race. This prompted this rally, protests, and a televised hearing in which Fannie Lou Hamer famously spoke on the violence perpetrated against African-Americans in her state. Johnson—fearing losing the South to Goldwater—offered a "compromise": two nonvoting seats at the convention and the promise that future Democratic National Conventions would be integrated. The MFDP ultimately rejected the proposal, but this showdown was one of the major events that paved the way for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Item #616051