Walking with the Wind

The turning point for the civil rights movement and for SNCC was the refusal to seat the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Founded in April 1964, the MFDP was open to all Mississippians regardless of race, with the goal of encouraging Black Mississippians to participate in the political process while simultaneously challenging Mississippi’s all-White Democratic delegation.

After the election, however, the Mississippi Democratic Party illegally barred the MFDP from the state’s due political process. Nevertheless, 48 MFDP delegates, the majority of whom were Black men and women, arrived at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, believing they stood a chance at taking over some of Mississippi’s Democratic seats. To Lewis, the 48 delegates “represented the very best of American democracy” (283) because they showed the power of grassroots politics.

When the convention refused to seat MFDP delegates, the MFDP, Lewis, and the broader Black and civil rights community challenged the seating of the Democratic state party, believing the law and convention were on their side. Aided by civil rights lawyers, including Joe Rauh, who helped draft legal briefs and gain commitments from other Democratic Party delegations across the US, MFDP delegates presented their case to the National Democratic Party’s Credentials Committee. Rauh introduced MFDP’s case by telling “committee members that they would hear that day the ‘story of tragedy and terror in Mississippi’” (287). Fannie Lou Hamer gave the most powerful testimony, describing her experience as a Black woman in Mississippi. Her testimony brought some to tears.

Fearful that the controversial convention would cost him the whole South in the upcoming election, President Johnson cut into the broadcast of Fannie Lou’s testimony with a spur-of-the-moment live address. He then appointed an emergency subcommittee chaired by Minnesota Attorney General Walter Mondale to address the situation. The subcommittee, under Johnson’s instruction, proposed a compromise: two “at-large” seats for MFDP and the full seating of the Mississippi Democratic Party. The MFDP refused to accept this compromise.

By the end of 1964, the “SNCC was shaking at its very roots, fragmenting and threatening to fall apart under its own weight” (300). Lewis believed the biggest problems for the organization were the loss of a guiding principle (i.e., unity around nonviolence) and the loss of faith that members had in one another. Infighting, rumors, and suspicion now embroiled the organization. Lewis no longer trusted all SNCC members, believing that some, like Stokely Carmichael, were stirring up things behind Lewis’s back. In December 1964, Lewis wrote an open letter to the SNCC membership attempting to clear the air, ending his letter with “Uhuru” (309), which means freedom in Swahili.

To unify SNCC, “and turn our energy and passions not on one another but on a deserving target” (312), Lewis turned their attention to Selma. He traveled to the city to participate in a protest for voting rights and was subsequently arrested. His arrest led a local judge to issue an injunction, which forbade public gatherings of more than three people in the city. The injunction clearly meant to prevent Lewis and the SNCC from holding protests and voter registration drives. Their lawyers spent the rest of 1964 trying to dissolve the injunction.

Around this time, Dr. King’s SCLC was choosing its next target. Since voting rights were now the focus of the entire CRM, the SCLS decided to also turn their sights on Selma despite the fact that the SNCC had strong feelings against the SCLC getting involved. Because the SNCC had been working in the city for over a year to register its residents, they felt the SCLC was once again swooping in after the SNCC had worked hard to lay the groundwork. Lewis understood these frustrations. However, he did not believe that SNCC should stand in the way of SCLC because the residents of Selma had asked Dr. King for help.

The civil rights protests in Selma began on January 18, 1965. Dr. King and Lewis led 400 residents from Brown’s Chapel to the city’s courthouse steps. At the courthouse, a mob confronted them, including the founder and chairman of the American Nazi Party. The protestors waited. Lewis reminisces that people often forget that “during the civil rights era were the days and days of uneventful protests that took place outside these courtrooms and jails” (320). After the first day of relative peace, the police began making arrests during subsequent protests. After Dr. King was eventually arrested, he wrote his famous “Letters from the Selma Jail” (325) to inspire interest in a federal voting rights bill.

The organizers in Selma planned a night march, which was unusual—the cover of darkness could hide too much. The group of marchers barely left the church when police began beating them. One young Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, died after police shot him in the stomach for trying to protect his mother from being beaten. During his funeral procession, James Bevel suggested that the group take Jimmie Lee’s body from Selma to Montgomery to confront Alabama’s governor. While they buried Jimmie Lee, Bevel’s idea of a march to Montgomery took hold.