Aug. 24, 1964 - Banned Alabama delegates angrily defied orders tonight and staged a sit-in at the opening session of the 34th Democratic National Convention after a majority refused to sign a required party loyalty oath.
Mississippi delegates, also barred from the convention floor pending settlement of a challenge by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an integrated group, did not show. The Mississippi case may be settled by the credentials committee tomorrow.
At least 12 of the 92 Alabama delegates and alternates took the loyalty pledge and were considered fully recognized. But a large group led by Eugene (Bull) Connor, national committeeman and public safety director in Birmingham during race riots there in 1963, would not sign and would not leave.
Party officials decided that so long as the delegates were orderly, the dignity of the proceedings would best be served if no force was used to eject them. They planned tomorrow to remove the chairs of all members of the group who had not followed the party directive.
Dr. Wallace Miller, one of the rebels, retorted: “We’ll get some folding chairs and bring them with us if we find out that’s what they are going to do.”
The defiant uproar resulting from the Alabama invasion — with a small amount of shoving — was swallowed in the mass of 5,200 delegates and alternates and thousands of visitors packed into the vast Convention Hall in Atlantic City, which seats 18,500. It attracted little attention outside the immediate area.
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