Keshia, Thank you so much for righting this.

Mother,Daughter,Sister,Student,Teacher, CEO, MHPV Media expert, going for daily victory in healing myself and offering healing to others through self discovery

Aug 25, 2016

52 years ago, this speech changed the course of black voting rights in America

Keisha N. Blain

31415

Keshia, Thank you so much for righting this. I just heard about this speach in detail by William Payne who was there and was sitting next to Martin Lurther King. If there is anyway you could reach out to William Payne and interview him it would be amazing. The night Obama gave his speech at the Philly DNC William Payne sat with me for an hour and told me first hand of the how at the last minet thye were not going to allow Dr. King to speak. Please let me know if you need away to contact William Payne contact me or call his nephew’s office Congressman Payne. Thank you!!! Maggie

In early 1964, as part of Freedom Summer, Mississippi civil rights activists afﬁliated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) in Mississippi launched the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Claiming status as ‘‘the only democratically constituted body of Mississippi citizens,’’ they appealed to the credentials committee of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) of 1964 to recognize their party’s delegation in place of the all-white Democratic Party delegation from Mississippi (Victoria Gray, July 1964).

In his statement before the credentials committee, Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed support for the MFDP delegates, calling them ‘‘the true heirs of the tradition of Jefferson and Hamilton’’ (King, 22 August 1964).

Because Mississippi blacks were barred from participating in the meetings of the state’s Democratic Party, they decided to form their own party. Mirroring the Democratic Party’s ofﬁcial procedure, MFDP held parallel precinct and district caucuses open to all races. With the support of Freedom Summer students and volunteers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), activists gathered signa¬tures of potential black voters for a ‘‘freedom registration.’’ Delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Atlantic City, New Jersey, were elected at MFDP’s state convention in Jackson on 6 August 1964. ect….http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_mississippi_freedom_democratic_party/