BATTLE OF CREDENTIALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300190002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 7, 1964
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

NEWSWEEK
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SEPTF'MBER 7, 1964
FOIAb3b
CPYRGHT
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Battle of Credentials
beneath the Barnum 6c Dailey wnir
of Atlantic City, Lyndon Johnson an
the Democratic Party faced a question
with incalculable implications for No-
vember: could the quixotic force of the
Southern Negro revolt be stitched into
the Democratic family patchwork with-
out sacrificing the loyalist remnants of
the white South to Barry Goldwater?
To millions of televiewers, the Demo-
crats' painful struggle to find the answer
looked like a tragi-comedy of errors-an
absurd game of musical folding chairs
on the teeming convention floor be-
tween unreconstructed Southerners, in-
transigent Negro demonstrators and
harried sergeants-at-arms. But behind
the scenes, the drama was far more
.- heady blend of principle and
tism unfolding in smoke-filled
rooms, corridor conferences, and untold
telephone calls. Before the week was
out, it involved a constellation of party
leaders-all the way up to LBJ.
In a year of unprecedented Negro
ferment and ominous talk of white back-
lash, the Democrats knew they were in
for trouble over the pesky problem of
credentials long before they arrived at
Atlantic City. The party loyalty of
the 36-vote delegation from Alabama-
where Gov. George Wallace had legis-
lated a slate of unpledged Democratic
electors-was sure to be challenged.
The Mississippi situation was even more
explosive. For weeks, Northern liberals
had been canvassing nationwide support immediately. With Freedom pickets al
for seating a full delegation from the ready plodding the Boardwalk outside
predominantly Negro Freedom Demo- Convention Hall, their sympathizers on
cratic Party. To disregard, the Negroes' the 108-man Credentials Committee
demands would be to repudiate the made clear that the "back-of-the-bus"
moral drive of the Negro revolution; to plan was unacceptable. And while the
satisfy them would mean a floor fight committee was polishing up its Alabama
almost certain to trigger a Southerners' ultimatum, state committeeman "Bull"
walkout. Connor, whose police dogs once terror-
On Sunday, convention eve, the Presi- ized BiruhiLLgham Negroes, casually
had a h-year-o as mg on lawyer
named Tom Finney, a lean, unflappable
,former CIA man who had worked with
Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy,
and had already handled one delicate
mission for Mr. Johnson-accompanying
Allen Dulles to Mississippi after the dis-
appearance of the three . civil-rights
workers. In Mississippi, Finney had
come to know the firebrands of the
Freedom Party, and understood their
turbulent and unpredictable approach
to politics. The President had also as-
signed Hubert Humphrey to the * prob-
lem. As a veteran of Americans for
Democratic Action, the senator was
close to the white liberals spearheading
the Freedom Democrats' cause.
The Plan: And Mr. Johnson had a
plan. Ile had sweated out agreement
with key Southern leaders on a formula
to avert a disastrous floor fight and, he
hoped, pacify the Freedom Democrats:
the lily-white regular Mississippi dele-
gation, many of them Goldwater-
minded, would be seated if they signed
a mild party loyalty oath; the party
would pledge to open its Dixie conven-
tion process to Negroes; and some ges-
ture-perhaps "honored guest" status,
but no vote-would be offered the Free-
dom Party, which did not legally qualify
for seating. The Alabamans would be
required to sign a stricter oath.
But the glue came unstuck' almost
picked up
an unbriefed clerk. "Never been treated
as nice in my life," twanged Bull, re-
turning to his ocean-front hotel and turn-
ing a deaf ear to National Chairman
John Bailey's frantic telephone pleas to
return the badges and tickets.
Bedside Manner: The next day
Humphrey and Finney went to work on
the Mississippi riddle at the White
house command post, the garish new
Pageant Motel across from Convention
Hall. Plopping down on a bed in his
shirt sleeves, Humphrey begged the
Rev. Martin Luther King and FDP lead-
ers to accept the LBJ plan. They
wouldn't. "Negroes want Negroes to rep-
resent them," Mississippi vote worker
Bob Moses told Humphrey. "Wait, Bob,"
Humphrey cried, "I thought we were
interested in ending discrimination."
With matters at an impasse, a spe-
cial credentials subcommittee was put irY
charge of the Mississippi question as
the convention opened. A weeklong
stall appealed to some. "Hell," said one
? big-city boss, "let's lock 'em up with a
bottle of whisky and leave them there."
But Finney, for one, recognized the
folly of the easy out. "Goldwater," lie
argued, "would tell the country a hand-
ful of illegally appointed Negroes had
brought this party to its knees." That
night Connor and his Alabama band-
their loyalty oaths unsigned-bulled their
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CPYRGHT
way onto the floor and took their seats.
By Tuesday, the White House pres-
sure was on full. Walter Reuther of the
UAW materialized to lend a hand, sit-
ting down with Finney, Humphrey,
Credentials Committee chief David
Lawrence of Pennsylvania, and a hand-
ful of other insiders to settle the
problem. White House aide Walter Jen-
kins, a key figure in the negotiation,
introduced Finney.
Twist: Now Finney had a new
twist: two leaders of the Freedom
Party would be given votes as dele-
gates at large and seated with other
delegations. Working with Georgia's
Gov. Carl Sanders and South Caro-
lina's Sen. Olin Johnston, White House
'operatives had won general Southern
agreement on this new concession to the
Negroes. At ' the ball, first the subcom-
mittee then the full Credentials Com-
mittee ratified the solution; the threat
of a floor fight melted.
There were other hopeful signs. -
While most of the disgruntled Mis-
sissippians packed off for home, at least
three loyalists (one with family ties to
Mr. Johnson) signed the oath and were
ready to take their seats. And though
Connor and his cronies stood firm, a small
band of Alabama loyalists signed, too.
But the undisciplined, mistrustful
Freedom Democrats, committed to pro-
test as a way of life, were in no mood
for gracious compromise. Despite the
pleas of their chief negotiator, Wash-
ington labor lawyer Joseph L. Rauh Jr.,
they unanimously turned down the
plan. Instead, armed with borrowed
credentials supplied by friends.. in the
Oregon, Michigan, and other delega-
tions, they marched on Convention Hall
that night, infiltrated the auditorium
;despite police guards at the gates, and.
sat in at the Mississippi section. (The
white loyalists, behind the rostrum en-
joying a Coke when the Negroes took
over, were kept there by the ubiquitous
Finney.)
On the other side of the convention
floor, Bull Connor and his holdouts were
staging their own sit-in. Having arrived
at the hall early, they were able to grab
the delegation's 'microphone before the
loyalist contingent showed up.
Special precaG"tions were taken on the
night of the nominations. In the after-
noon, grinning Negro workmen carted
away extra seats from the Alabama and
Mississippi sections; Connor and his fol-
lowers arrived to find the microphone
snug in the hands of the loyalists. Secret
Service men and FBI agents swarmed
around the Mississippi loyalists. But
once again a Freedom Party cadre
found its way uinto the,,ball.,."We didn't
spend years korking underground for
nothing," explained one FDP man with
a satisfied giiin.
Frittered Away: Perhaps. not. Un-
questionably, the Freedom,,, Democrats.
had dramatized their case, to the nation,
and won reform in party rules to open
future conventions to Negroes. Yet the
very forces that spawned, the Freedom
Party kept it from taking the giant step
from protest to mature political action.
Doctrinaire to the last, they were Lis
able or unwilling to yield even huo
inch in the name of compromise. They
had won a victory-and frittered away
its psychological impact by treating it
stubbornly as a'defeat.
For Lyndon Johnson, though, the
gains were far more tangible. He had
asked nothing more of Goldwater-prone
Mississippi and Alabama than he d been
entitled to. He had already written
them off in November anyway, and
now the threat of widespread defec-
tions across the rest of the South had
been extinguished. He had handled the
recalcitrant Negroes, too, with. a firm
but sensitive hand. Only the irrecon-
cilables on the fringes of the great
confrontation had gone home mad.
SEP 7 1964
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