Aug. 22, 1964 - A red hot row growing out of the battle over civil rights flared today in the Democratic Party’s credential committee, threatening a possible floor fight when the national convention is called to order Monday.
Challenges to the seating of delegations from Mississippi and Alabama plunged the credentials committee into an extended session of impassioned debate.
The vivid tale of violence and terror in Mississippi as Negroes sought to exercise their political rights as citizens was spread before the committee by a group of witnesses, while white delegates offered sworn affidavits to refute the testimony.
Party leaders worked all day seeking compromises which would forestall an open battle on the floor — in the face of threats that the fight would come if committee rulings were not satisfactory.
In the Mississippi case, the “regular,” all-white convention delegation was challenged by 64 Negro and four white delegates from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, headed by Aaron Henry and assisted by Joseph Rauh Jr., a Washington D.C. lawyer who was given an hour to present his case.
Rauh began calling his witnesses, who included Mrs. Schwerner, whose husband was one of the three slain civil rights workers whose bodies went undiscovered for weeks.
She told of having a door in the state capitol slammed in her face when she attempted to see Gov. Paul Johnson about the disappearance of her husband, Michael, on June 21.
“Johnson was with Governor Wallace of Alabama,” the pale housewife half-whispered. “When he saw me, he turned on his heel and slammed the door in my face.”
The Rev. Edwin King of Jackson, Miss., told of being imprisoned and threatened after becoming a national committeeman for the MFDP.
King charged that the regular Democratic party has “condoned a reign of terror in the state this summer.”
Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville, Miss., said she was beaten with a blackjack by police after being arrested for attempting to register to vote.
The chief spokesman for the “regulars,” State Senator E.K. Collins of Laurel, Miss., defended the right of his all-white delegation to be seated with an argument that relied heavily on the overwhelming support traditionally given the Democratic party in Mississippi.
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