Police barred these black activists from the House floor, while a white Nazi in blackface got in
The women were entitled to be there and speak, and still they were denied
Busloads of sharecroppers, truck drivers and cooks from Mississippi poured on to Capitol Hill to march. Five-hundred Mississippians, most of them members of the Freedom Democratic Party, made the thousand mile pilgrimage to contest the right of five Mississippi congressman to sit in the House of Representatives while congress investigated voter discrimination in their state. January 4, 1965 was an opening day to remember.
Like countless times in history, it was brave black women — Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Gray, and Annie Devine — who attempted to make it to the House chamber to have their voices heard. Hamer said, “The vote to seat the Mississippi congressman was a vote to continue the discrimination, lynching and murder of Negroes who seek the right to vote.”
But the trio was barred from entering. “You have no floor privileges,” said Chief Schamp of the Capitol Police.
The three women each handed Schamp a piece of paper as proof that they were bona fide contestants, which entitled them to be on the floor. They were still denied. “We’re not disappointed and we’re not through,” Devine said as happy tears streamed down her cheek. “We’ll be back.”
Denial was not defeat. Although Schamp ignored the ladies petitions and demanded the group be pushed back, the grassroots organization marched on the White House. “We still get lynched, Lyndon,” read one picket sign. “Great Society or Great Hypocrisy” read another.
Freedom Democratic Party, co-founded by Hamer who later became a famous civil rights activist, raised $10,000 to transport protesters to Washington in three charter Trailways buses and three private buses. Others rode in private cars, even hitchhiked, to make the journey. Everyone pooled their funds, and the local churches provided food and shelter. Too much organizing had been done to turn away without making their concerns known. As the congressmen entered the chamber to vote, the 500 Mississippians lined the hall from the House building to the Capitol, staring the men in the eyes. JET reported:
“Working like veteran lobbyists, the Mississippi citizens in coveralls, boots, straw hats, rag muffins, etc., swarmed over Capitol Hill like locusts, buzzed into the offices of all congressman and stood face-to-face to ask each solon to vote against seating Mississippi because ‘my people are being killed for trying to vote.’”
The civil right activists couldn’t get in but Robert Lloyd, a white Nazi in blackface, was able to slip through security and make it all the way to the House floor. Lloyd heiled Hitler as the congressman looked on with amazement. “I’se the Mississippi delegation,” he shouted before he was ushered out. He was released after paying a $19 fine on disorderly conduct charges . One of the black female officers told JET she saw him when he ran in shouting, but everyone looked the other way. The previous summer Lloyd, also in blackface, had unleashed a cage of mice on the speaker’s table at a NAACP youth convention.
It isn’t surprising three powerful black female activists weren’t allowed to enter the House floor with legitimate grievances on voter discrimination, but a white male Nazi had the privilege of displaying bigotry and hate for all of Congress to see.
Black Mississippians held their heads high with plans to “continue their efforts to unseat all illegally elected congressman by petitions, public hearings, and another march on the Capitol if necessary.”
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