# Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also called the Freedom Democratic Party, was a political party active in Mississippi from 1964 to 1968, during the Civil Rights Movement. It served as the partisan arm of the Freedom Democrat organization, was aligned with the national [[Democratic Party (United States)]], and was racially integrated. Its organizers were Mississippians who supported the movement.[^1] In 1964 it challenged the right of the regular Mississippi Democratic delegation to sit at the Democratic National Convention. It asked that its own elected delegates be seated in their place.[^1] The challenge's Minnesota connection runs through [[Walter Mondale]], then [[Attorney General of Minnesota]]. As chairman of a Credentials Committee subcommittee, he brokered a compromise between the segregated Mississippi delegation and the MFDP.[^2] The [[Minnesota Historical Society]] is funded in part by the State of Minnesota. Its biography of Mondale says the compromise "defused a potentially explosive and polarizing situation" and that rules adopted at the 1964 convention barred segregated delegations.[^2] The same biography says the compromise "incensed the more fervent members of both factions."[^2] Wikipedia's account records a different outcome for the party's members. It says the convention disillusioned many in the MFDP, and that many civil rights activists felt betrayed by [[Lyndon Johnson]], [[Hubert Humphrey]] and the liberal establishment.[^1] ## Who James W. Wright, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker and Bob Moses founded the party in 1964.[^1] Members of the original 1964 convention delegation included Lawrence Guyot, Peggy J. Conner, Victoria Gray, Edwin King, Aaron Henry, Wright, Hamer, Annie Devine and Moses. Joseph Rauh acted as the party's legal counsel, and Baker gave the keynote at its state convention.[^1] The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) had led the voter-registration work that preceded the party.[^1] ## What COFO set up the MFDP in April 1964 as a rival to the regular state party. It described the new party as non-discriminatory and non-exclusionary.[^1] The party aimed to become Mississippi's officially recognized Democratic organization by winning the state's seats at the 1964 national convention for a slate chosen by Black and white Mississippians.[^1] After the convention, Wikipedia records that the party moved toward more radical positions. It invited Malcolm X to speak and opposed the Vietnam War.[^1] ## When Mississippi's 1890 constitution, together with the practices of the state's governing white Democrats, had excluded African Americans from political participation. Participation in the state Democratic Party was limited to whites.[^1] Voter-registration campaigns by SNCC and COFO began in 1961.[^1] In June 1963 African Americans were prevented from voting in the Mississippi Democratic primary. An alternative "Freedom Ballot" was then held alongside the November 1963 voting.[^1] Sixteen years earlier, at the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Southern delegates had walked out and formed the Dixiecrat Party.[^3] The MFDP was formally established in April 1964.[^1] On August 4, 1964, the bodies of CORE workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were found in an earthen dam. The three had been registering voters for the MFDP and had been missing since June.[^1] The party held its state convention two days later, on August 6, 1964.[^1] ## Where The party organized across Mississippi. It held its state convention at the Masonic Temple in Jackson.[^1] At the national convention in Atlantic City, supporters kept up a round-the-clock picket line on the boardwalk outside the hall.[^1] ## Why Wikipedia records the MFDP's stated grounds at the national convention. The party argued that the regular delegates had been chosen illegally through a fully segregated process that broke both party rules and federal law. It also argued that the regulars did not intend to support President Johnson, the party's nominee, in November.[^1] Martin Luther King told Johnson he would urge the MFDP's seating "as the only democratically constituted delegation from Mississippi."[^1] ## How Officials blocked Black voter registration. In response, Freedom Summer volunteers enrolled party supporters through a simpler process. It required no literacy test and no registration at the courthouse.[^1] The party's delegates travelled to the convention by bus. The Democratic Party referred their challenge to the credentials committee, and the MFDP filed a legal brief setting out how the regular delegation had excluded Black citizens.[^1] The party then challenged the seating of Mississippi's elected members of the U.S. House. It argued that disfranchisement had kept half the state's electorate out of their election.[^1] ## How many Wikipedia gives these figures for the party: - **Freedom Ballot:** close to 80,000 people voted for an integrated slate in the 1963 Freedom Ballot.[^1] - **Membership:** the party had 80,000 members by the end of August 1964.[^1] - **State convention:** 2,500 people attended the August 6, 1964 convention.[^1] - **House challenge:** the challenge drew 149 votes in Congress. The House leadership and Johnson's White House rejected overturning the Mississippi representatives.[^1] John Lewis, the SNCC chairman, later wrote of the convention outcome: "As far as I'm concerned, this was the turning point of the civil rights movement."[^1] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who The 1964 episode involved several officials from Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party: - **Walter Mondale** had been appointed Minnesota attorney general by Governor [[Orville Freeman]] in May 1960 and was elected to the office that fall. He chaired the Credentials Committee subcommittee that handled the Mississippi challenge.[^2] - **Hubert Humphrey** had chaired the 1944 merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties that created the DFL.[^4] Wikipedia records that activists felt betrayed by Humphrey, along with Johnson, after the convention.[^1] - **Karl Rolvaag**, Minnesota's governor, appointed Mondale to fill Humphrey's U.S. Senate seat after Humphrey was elected [[Vice President of the United States]] in 1964.[^2] ### What The Minnesota Historical Society biography describes the compromise as the start of Mondale's national career. It credits the compromise with setting the stage for the Democratic Party's later transformation, saying the 1964 rules barred segregated delegations and greatly expanded participation by previously marginalized groups.[^2] The biography also records that Mondale, as senator, worked to build public support in Minnesota for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[^2] ### When The State's own civil-rights statutes are now the subject of a pending federal action. On January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] issued release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. The release states that Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^5] The complaint in [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]] (D. Minn., filed Jan. 14, 2026) is brought under [[Title VII]] of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. It cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times, including subdivision 3(c)'s requirement that an agency explain its reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate. The case is pending.[^6] The project's master *[[How Minnesota Got Here]]* tallies the statute's history line as follows: a 1981 chapter under Governor Al Quie (Republican), then a 1985 rider under Governor Rudy Perpich (DFL), then thirteen further amendments, seven of them under Republican governors, with no repeal.[^7] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds Minnesota the only U.S. state so described. By comparison, the [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-338) states a policy of supporting efforts to remove "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein."[^8] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party* (revid 1377816655, retrieved 2026-10-28) — the party's 1964–1968 existence, founders, delegation, convention challenge, figures and aftermath. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Freedom_Democratic_Party [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Walter F. Mondale Biography* (undated) — Mondale's 1960 appointment as attorney general, his 1964 Credentials Committee subcommittee role and the compromise, the 1964 rule changes, his Senate appointment by Rolvaag, and his Voting Rights Act work; the State of Minnesota funding line. https://www.mnhs.org/mondale/biography [^3]: Wikipedia, *1948 Democratic National Convention* — the Southern delegates' walkout and the formation of the Dixiecrat Party (July 17, 1948). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Democratic_National_Convention [^4]: Wikipedia, *Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party* — the April 15, 1944 merger, with Humphrey chairing the fusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Democratic%E2%80%93Farmer%E2%80%93Labor_Party [^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — the title of the release and Attorney General Bondi's certification. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, *Complaint, United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn. filed Jan. 14, 2026) — the Title VII basis of the suit and its eight citations of Minn. Stat. § 43A.191, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl [^7]: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, *Minn. Stat. § 43A.191* (current) — the statute's text and history line. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/43A.191 [^8]: U.S. Congress, *Iraq Liberation Act of 1998*, Pub. L. 105-338 (1998) — the statutory "regime" usage cited in the project's catalogue. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-105publ338/pdf/PLAW-105publ338.pdf