The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP-founding members were Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Robert Moses) was formed by African-American Mississippians to challenge the legitimacy of the "White Only" Democratic Party of Mississippi.
Listen to an excerpt of Miss Hamer's Testimony...
They sought representation from the "Credentials Committee" at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City...the most amazing part of the nationally televised testimony came from a Mississippi Sharecropper, Fannie Lou Hamer...
Ultimately, President Johnson with the help of Hubert Humphrey offered a "compromise" solution...they offered the MFDP two seats in the delegation. They even "used" powerful African-American politician Adam Clayton Powell of New York to try and convince the Mississippians to agree to the compromise.
Adam Clayton Powell: "You don't know who I am, do you?"
Fannie Lou Hamer: "Yeah, I know who you are. You are Adam Clayton Powell...But, how many bales of cotton have you picked? How many beatings have you taken?"
Powell could say nothing and walked away...
Hamer: "We didn't come all this way for no two seats...cause all of us is tired."
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