Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Black Voting Rights

MFDP and the 1964 Democratic Convention

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was formed to challenge the all-white regular Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
The MFDP elected its pro-Johnson delegation.
Over the summer, many voting rights activists were arrested, beaten, and churches/homes/businesses were burned or bombed.
Three activists (two white northerners and a local black volunteer) disappeared in early June.
The FBI investigated and found their bodies in August; Klansmen confessed to the killings.
The integrated MFDP delegation and King requested to be seated instead of the all-white Mississippi delegation.
The all-white delegation hadn't pledged support for Johnson due to his civil rights stance.
Johnson feared that seating the MFDP would cause a white backlash.
George Wallace won over a third of the vote in the Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland primaries.
Southern Democrats defected, taking control of state Republican organizations.
The Republican national convention had no black delegates from the South.
Barry Goldwater (Arizona) voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was nominated as the presidential nominee.
Johnson proposed a compromise: seating regular delegates if they pledged to vote for him, choosing two MFDP members as at-large delegates, and promising no segregated delegation would be seated in the future.
Mississippi and most Alabama delegates walked out.
The MFDP also rejected the compromise and walked out.
Moses declared, "We're not here to bring politics to our morality, but morality to our politics."
Johnson was nominated by acclamation.
Johnson lost five southern states that had been Democratic since Reconstruction but won $61$ percent of the national popular vote and $96$ percent of the national black vote.
Democrats also won majorities in Congress (Senate: $68$ to $32$ , House: $295$ to $140$ ).
King endorsed Johnson, and the SCLC suspended protests during the fall campaign.
The standoff in Atlantic City was painful for King, as he was torn between his alliance with the president and his loyalty to the activists.
King declined to back either Johnson's compromise proposal or the MFDP's rejection of it.
The episode helped raise the profile of voting rights as an issue.
King announced a new campaign against disenfranchisement after the election.

Selma and Voting Rights

The SCLC decided to launch its battle for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (seat of Dallas County).
Dallas County had $15,000$ black residents of voting age, a majority of the adult population, but fewer than $200$ registered black voters.
The local White Citizen's Council controlled city politics.
The KKK was active, and Sheriff Jim Clark was known for his quick temper and wore a lapel button stating "NEVER" to integration.
Selma was economically dependent on Craig Air Force Base, which was integrated.
A young anti-machine candidate was elected mayor who avowed segregation but committed to modernization and economic development.
The mayor created a new office of Public Safety Director and gave the job to Wilson Baker, who considered Clark a disgrace to law enforcement.
Clark retained control at the county level.
The black community in Selma had a long-established voting rights movement, the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL).
In late 1962, the DCVL invited SNCC to begin a VEP-funded voting rights campaign in Selma.
SNCC increased black applications for registration from $3$ a month in January 1963 to $215$ in October, but registrars rejected the overwhelming majority of them (all but $11$ of the $215$ ).
SNCC also organized sit-ins (mostly by high school students), regular mass meetings at Brown Chapel, and marches to the registration office, resulting in mass arrests.
In July 1964, Judge James Hare issued an injunction banning civil rights groups from holding marches and public meetings.
The DCVL asked King to bring the SCLC to Selma in January 1965 after the SNCC campaign stalled.
Mass meetings, marches to the courthouse, protest marches in surrounding towns, and hundreds of arrests occurred.
King was jailed for three days.
On February 4, Judge Daniel Thomas ordered county registrars to let all applicants sign up for appointments, process at least $100$ applicants every day, and stop administering a citizenship test.
The SCLC decided to boycott the appointment book and keep protesting.
King believed the new registration process would be too slow.
He wanted to keep up political pressure for comprehensive federal voting rights reform.
Public safety director Wilson Baker tried to ease tensions.
Sheriff Clark continually frustrated these efforts.
Baker allowed protestors to march unmolested through the streets of Selma, refusing to enforce Judge Hare's injunction.
Clark and his men beat and arrested marchers at the county courthouse.
Clark also helped break up the February 18 march in which Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot.
He played a key role in orchestrating the assault on protesters at the Pettus Bridge on March 7.
Clark's brutality outraged King's supporters, alarmed President Johnson, and brought national media attention to the voting rights issue.
On March 9, King led marchers back to the Pettus Bridge and had to decide whether to turn the march around before crossing or try to cross the bridge.

Exhibits

Exhibit 1: Percentage of adult population in the South registered to vote, by state

Alabama: $13.4\%$ (1962), $19.3\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population; $69.2\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
Arkansas: $34.0\%$ Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population, March 1965; $40.4\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
Florida: $36.8\%$ (1962), $51.2\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population
Georgia: $27.4\%$ Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population, March 1965; $62.6\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
Louisiana: $27.8\%$ (1962), $31.6\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population; $80.5\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
Mississippi: $5.3\%$ (1962), $6.7\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population; $69.9\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
North Carolina: $35.8\%$ (1962), $46.8\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population; $96.8\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
South Carolina: $22.9\%$ (1962), $37.3\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population; $75.7\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965
Tennessee: $49.8\%$ (1962), $69.4\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population
Texas: $26.7\%$ (1962), $57.7\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population
Virginia: $24.0\%$ (1962), $38.3\%$ (March 1965) Black registered voters as percent of black voting age population; $61.1\%$ White registered voters as percent of white voting age population, March 1965

Exhibit 2: U.S. households with radios and/or televisions, 1946-1965

Year, Households with Radio Sets (thousands), Households with TV Sets (thousands)
$1946, 33,998, 8$
$1950, 40,700, 5,030$
$1955, 45,900, 30,700$
$1960, 50,193, 45,750$
$1965, 55,200, 52,700$