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Many histories of the FDP's convention challenge should be written. The challenge should be was simultaneously a watershed in the history of Mississippi, a crisis-point in the history of the civil rights movement, and a significant footnote to the history of the Democratic Party. However, as a white Northerner working sporadically for the FDP in Washington and Atlantic City, I could see the unfolding convention challenge only as a case study in political lobbying and public relations...
Formally created on April 26, 1964 the Party began taking shape in June, with the influx of Freedom Summer volunteers. At this stage many of the FDP's Northern friends worried at its sluggishness in building an active organization and constituency. During one June visit to Washington Aaron Henry, NAACP chief in Mississippi and eventual spokesman for the Party, became angry with the impatience of his young Northern supporters: "All you consider is politics and this party thing. We're handling a couple hundred community centers at once down there. We'll cross the political bridge if and when...
Obviously he viewed the Party as only one, fairly inconsequential, thread in the fabric of the Freedom Summer project. This perspective, shared by most FDP leaders, inevitably inculcated in the Party the crusading zeal and moral absolutism of the Summer Project, qualities well suited to a social revolution, but rather awkward at a national political convention...
...example, the Massachusetts party remained sympathetic, but uncommitted, to the Party right through the convention week. Certainly LBJ's hostility to the FDP contributed to the ambivalence, but simple ignorance among Massachusetts delegates also played a part. At any moment, the FDP could have mobilized Boston's many civil rights groups into a concerted lobbying organization. But word never came from Jackson, and many Massachusetts delegates didn't learn the details of the issue until convention week, when hoopla and gossip precluded careful consideration of the question...
...Washington D.C. the lobbying situation was equally chaotic. Congress remained in session nearly all summer, presenting District civil rights groups with an opportunity to convince, cajole, and inform hundreds of important Democrats. At one point three independent teams of lobbyists were scouring the Hill for the FDP, but lack of coordination led to duplication of effort and endless embarrassment. Without leadership from the Party, the activity was clearly futile, and eventually it disintegrated...