Remembering The Election of 1964

The election of 1964 impacted blacks unlike any before as it set the stage for how African Americans would vote for decades to come.

It put Civil Rights at the forefront, with people of color making gains that had not been seen since Reconstruction. Congress passed the historic Civil Rights Act as the election went into high gear, ending a century of Jim Crow throughout the land. It sought to put blacks and whites on an even playing field with equal access to goods and services in the South and the North. 

Although spearheaded by President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, and the Northern wing of his party, it was pushed over the finish line by a select group of Republicans. The bill was signed during an elaborate ceremony in the East Room attended by Martin Luther King and other dignitaries.

With the help of a movement of Northern college students during Freedom Summer 1964, blacks across the South geared up to take advantage of their newfound freedom.  Voter registration projects, literacy training, and economic empowerment seminars took place, especially in Mississippi, which spilled over into neighboring States as blacks tested the limit of the new law.

However, efforts to help blacks in Mississippi become first-class citizens did not come without a cost.  African Americans accused of aiding the so-called outside agitators were beaten, saw their churches burned to the ground, or murdered in a hate-filled environment by suspected Klan members that included the high-profile murders of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, a white organizer from New York, Michael Schwerner, a white protester also from New York, and James Chaney, a black Mississippian who knew the lay of the land. They traveled the backroads together to register voters and investigated a church burning in Neshoba County that precipitated their demise.

After investigating the fire, the men were arrested for an alleged traffic violation while on their way to Meridian, Mississippi, and taken to the Neshoba County Jail. When they went missing after their release, organizers feared the worst. They pressured the federal government to get involved, knowing the trio was on the Klan's radar. Their burnt-out vehicle was discovered a few weeks afterward, hidden in the brush near an Indian Reservation. Searches of nearby woods and rivers turned up bodies of at least eight black men who had recently vanished, not surprising to blacks who lived the daily trauma of life in Mississippi. 

The FBI infiltrated the Klan, which they suspected was involved, to get to the bottom of the case. After intense interrogations, Klan informants cracked under pressure.  They admitted to ambushing the three Civil Rights workers on a country road, luring them to an isolated location,  shooting them, and burying their bodies near a dam site, where their remains were unearthed. Against this backdrop occurred one of the most crucial elections in American history.

As the election progressed, it became evident which leaders embraced the Civil Rights that students and others fought hard for.  The Republican nominee for president, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, voted against the Civil Rights Act on the grounds Civil Rights should be left up to the States to decide.  Blacks picked heavily outside the Republican Convention as black delegates suffered the wrath of the most hostile GOP gathering in history.  As a result, King, Abernathy, and other prominent Civil Rights leaders defected from the Republicans and advised other blacks to do the same. 

Also, at the convention, liberal Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller and George W. Romney pushed for Civil Rights. Former Vice President Richard Nixon also favored a middle-of-the-road approach. However, they were shouted down by hardline conservatives who saw Goldwater as a once-in-a-lifetime candidate.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Convention suffered setbacks of its own.  Blacks in Mississippi, who still faced challenges at the polls like poll taxes and literacy tests, decided to form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party along with others, who selected delegates of their own in opposition to the all-white Democratic Party.  

A showdown ensued at the convention over which delegates should represent the State.  The Mississippi Freedom Party argued its delegates should be seated since they were democratically elected and represented a cross-section of citizens as demonstrations took place on the floor on their behalf.  The request reportedly angered Johnson, who believed it would cause him the South, as Southerners planned to walk out if the matter was not decided in their favor.  The issue was referred to the Credentials Committee.

The committee convened live hearings to determine the outcome.  It allowed Americans to hear an impassioned plea from Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the founding members of the MFDP, who detailed the dangers faced by her and others in the State for simply trying to vote or register others.

She shared how she and others in 1963, while on their way home from a voter registration project, were pulled over on a back road by law enforcement who had been tipped off by local officials.  After being questioned about their whereabouts, they were loaded into vehicles and hauled off to the county jail without probable cause, which was customary for Civil Rights workers of the era.

While there, she revealed the torture they received for not staying in their place or toeing the line of racial segregation.  Hamer explained how jailers ordered two male Negro inmates to restrain her as she lay face down. They then took turns striking her with batons while one held her legs to keep her feet from moving. She added the beatings continued until the men were exhausted. She suffered lifelong injuries, including to her kidneys.

In the process, she heard screams from MFDP members in nearby cells. "All of this was on account we wanted to register to become first-class citizens," she explained.

She concluded, "...if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephone off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?"

President Johnson preempted the proceedings with an announcement in the East Room. However, the networks carried it in its entirety later. Her words sent shockwaves across America as the Whitehouse was inundated with phone calls demanding blacks be given their full rights,

As a compromise, Johnson ordered his lieutenants to draft a compromise that short-changed the MFDP.  They were offered two at-large seats with no decision-making privileges on the floor. It was swiftly voted down, which prompted Hamer to utter her famous words, "...we didn't come all this way for no two seats." They went back to their home State empty-handed.

Even though things didn't go as planned at the convention, Blacks voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in the Fall. It was Johnson who pushed for and signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which the Republican nominee rejected.  As a result of Hamer's speech, President Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act a year later and persuaded Congress to pass it. It revolutionized African American participation in the political process, which benefited Democrats for generations to come.

Sources:

Britannica

Learning for Justice

Time Magazine

Zinn Education Project