Word: mfdp
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Dates: during 1964-1964
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...down to the court house to register was not the main job. Perhaps 200 Negroes took the voter registration test in Marshall County, 350 in Benton and a similar number in De Soto. But in two months the Holly project registered 5500 people in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party (MFDP). Of Benton County's 1419 Negroes over 21 years old, 1100 were "freedom registered...
...project's eight counties had elected their own 15 man MFDP executive committees, and held precinct meetings and county conventions to elect their delegates to the second congressional district and start MFDP conventions. People who had never voted were forming their own local political action groups with their own local leadership...
...success of the project and the enthusiasm of the local people that helps offset this tension or at least make it worthwhile. Running a mass meeting may be tiring after 11 hours on the road canvassing for the MFDP. But such is fun too--the worker cannot help but feel pleasure and pride as he listens to the people speak their thoughts. To him, these are "my people." When he called the first meeting hardly anyone would speak up and the freedom worker had to talk himself hoarse. Now the local people have elected their own officers...
...miracle that these students who attend the nation's poorest school system, are so eager to learn, and so ready to pass their lessons on to others. Many join in or take over the work of the project (such as running the Freedom School or canvassing for the MFDP) and are soon "freedom workers" themselves...
Nancy Moran views the MFDP in a distinctly more limited environment. Her day by day account of the intense debate that occurred within the MFDP over the tactics to be employed at the Democratic convention reveals the virtual vacuum of leadership that seems to be developing within the Negro community. By the end of the convention, the MFDP delegates had effectively rejected both the advice of the Northern leaders and the leaders themselves, Miss Moran notes, and she questions whether there is any effective Negro leadership at present...