Waiting for '68

...Unofficially, it was agreed the civil rights people would occupy the south side of Kennedy Plaza, a column-rimmed semicircle extending onto the beach directly in front of the main boardwalk entrance to Convention Hall...

...I say, there should be black backlash in Georgia and the Carolinas...

...The session at the Union Baptist Temple, therefore, dramatically revealed the growing separation between the older, established leaders and the young people on the question of the best approach to achieving civil rights...

...I trust no politician, Republican or Democrat, black or white...

...Outside the hall, however, a different meeting of a different group had less predictable results and the details are worth recording...

...Wednesday, the leaders of virtually every major civil rights organization, except the NAACP and the Urban League, had congregated in the Union Baptist Temple Church...

...While they are generally considered loud-mouthed bluffers, there was no discounting the possibility that they might manage to damage seriously what had taken so long to accomplish...

...Last was a curious Goldwater group, nearby too, consisting of 10 boys approximately 12-17-years-old who looked like candidates for a rogues' gallery of juvenile delinquents...

...The Freedom Democratic party (FDP), scheduled to seek accreditation as the delegation from Mississippi, had been born of their sweat and pain and deaths...

...Tall, lean and articulate, the SNCC field leader went quickly to the offensive: "Some people are confused by the FDP decision...

...It is rooted in the irrational logic that it is better to have a man in the White House who lets you know where you stand than one who merely pretends to be a friend, because then the need for violence and open revolution will be apparent...

...Jim Farmer had rocked his large frame back on his heels, stretched out his arm, pointed his finger, spoken in his stentorian tones—and failed to communicate...

...To be sure, it reflects a plague-on-both-your-houses attitude...

...It would be a serious error, though, to interpret this as also being a challenge to the fundamental policy of nonviolence...

...It can be heard in North Philadelphia, South Chicago, Harlem and Union Square...

...one was surprised when they shouted the spelling of their hero's name in unison that they got it right...

...Facile judgments are impossible...

...To prevent provocation from the outside and control emotional responses inside, hundreds now stood enclosing the circle, arms firmly linked...

...Negroes, he first reminded his listeners, constitute only 10 per cent of the U.S...

...We will be back in '68," Carmichael ended, "and we will be seated with our heads still high...

...But most sat quietly on the Plaza, inside a large human circle punctuated by crudely drawn, short-sticked posters anchored between the floor boards: "One Man, One Vote," "Equal Rights," "Seat the FDP" There they kept vigil over a black and white coffin that lay facing the boardwalk beneath large charcoal drawings of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney...

...The Jersey police understood...

...Each time someone got up to move toward an animated discussion beyond the perimeter, loud murmurs of "Sit...

...That the Purists prevailed should not have come as a surprise—at least to those attending the meeting...

...Their rejection of the Politicizers notwithstanding, however, they have themselves elected to eschew violence and pursue political objectives within the body politic...

...Some accompanied FDP delegates to the hall and urged guards to permit their entry, though this was ultimately accomplished with the help of the Michigan and especially the Oregon delegation...

...raced across the floor...

...There, in the early morning hours of Wednesday when the klieg lights towering around them no longer shut out the darkness, many pulled khaki blankets off a stack at the rear and settled down to sleep—a bit weary, calm yet tense, still debating in whispers the wisdom of refusing the compromise, and aware that a decision which went beyond Atlantic City would soon be made...

...Nor can the outcome be interpreted as a coup by a powerful or militant minority...

...True, historically the elements which are unyielding in their demands tend to give in to the use of force...

...We want Federal aid to education for everyone...

...There they responded thunderously "Now...

...Then he pressed home: "I am going to vote for Johnson and Humphrey knowing they will do the right thing, because the civil rights movement will in time make Lyndon Johnson not straight but less crooked...

...BY 10 A.M...

...That's fine...

...A movement that doesn't disagree about tactics isn't worth its salt...

...Presently he came to the nub of his message: "I am going to vote on November 3. I am going into the polling booth and pulling down the lever for Lyndon Johnson because I think he is the better of the two men running, even though I don't like the choice facing me...

...One was the tension caused by the knowledge of what was taking place at the Baptist Temple...

...And sit everyone did, awaiting the FDP delegation attending Hubert Humphrey's designation and the open clash that was to follow...

...to cries of "Freedom...

...There they heard what was going on inside the "palace" from leaders who periodically mounted a rickety two-foot square table to shout the latest news...

...I say, there should also be black backlash in Mississippi...

...unreasonably, they insisted Lyndon Johnson had shown his true color by not embracing them totally...

...That's good...

...To the recipients of his praise this was an occasion of bitter defeat, not sweet success...

...Stokeley Carmichael spoke their language...

...We can hold our heads high...

...An old Socialist, a veteran labor warrior, an intellectual capable of transmitting sophisticated ideas in instantly meaningful language, he has no base in any particular group...

...Carrying badly lettered scraps of signs, they moved at a slow trot around their leader, a teenager dressed Teddy Boy-style calling cadence...

...I say, there should be black backlash in Alabama...

...Stop...

...That was nowhere more apparent than on the boardwalk in Atlantic City Wednesday night...

...They refused to consider the extraordinary plan to seat two FDP members anything other than "tokenism...

...Rustin's plea seems to sum up the Politicizers' position best...

...While they waited, Betty Mae Fikes, a stunningly handsome young girl whose remarkable voice would surely tingle the blood of the most ardent white supremacist, kept them singing...

...Nonetheless, it is one of the complexities of the Purists' stand that, for all their unwillingness to compromise, they remain strongly opposed to deviating from their basic commitment to nonviolence...

...We are the hope of the poor...

...What you have done here,' he boomed, "is the most important achievement of the civil rights movement in the last six months...

...Another was the performance of Jesse Gray, Stanley Branche and their few irresponsible cohorts from ACT—who had taken to sending the President telegrams with ultimatums and threats of storming the convention...

...The Credentials Committee's proposal clearly did not represent total victory, but it meant scoring heavily in a vital battle...

...Walking away from Kennedy Plaza one inevitably pondered the potential course of the new civil rights standard bearers...

...She stopped, though not before blinking at Convention Hall and prophesying "black rows in there in '68, yes a whole black wall...

...There is talk that what we did here will increase the white backlash in Mississippi...

...And I don't understand why we shouldn't drive out the old machine hacks up North, in Chicago and New York, whatever their color...

...There they buoyed their spirits, and attracted thousands upon thousands, by singing freedom songs...

...Carmichael's call is critically different...

...Continuing along lines drawn long ago by Gunnar Myrdal, he observed that when one added to this fact the political, economic and social profiles of the Negro community it was clear that the success of the war for equality depended upon allies—particularly political allies...

...Aaron Henry, the Mississippi pharmacist heading the FDP delegation, chaired the closed meeting...

...It had been a long, hot day and dusk did not promise relief...

...Shortly before the Democrats were to take over the town, leaders of core and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) arrived in Atlantic City to explain their demonstration plans and arrange at least tacit cooperation from local authorities...

...On the contrary, a number of things suggested a longer, hotter night...

...Bayard Rustin, in many ways the enigma of the civil rights movement, saw...

...From the floor there was less than polite response...

...Through the entire day such men as Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, and Bayard Rustin argued for reversal of the rejection...

...They are, undeniably and almost naturally, at the center of a wider confluence which includes Leftists and others capable of inflicting permanently disfiguring scars on the civil rights movement...

...Their purpose, ostensibly, was to inform the FDP delegation of their views on its decision to reject the Credentials Committee's proposal...

...The crowd thus disarmed, he suddenly took it beyond its singular concern into the area of national responsibility: "We are dedicated to the struggle of the underprivileged everywhere in the country, black and white...

...Dave Dennis elaborated: "The issue is no longer where we will be seated on busses or whether we will be served at lunch counters, you see...

...In contrast to the GOP event at the San Francisco Cow Palace in July, here they were intimately involved in what was to occur...

...If a vote were taken among the young CORE and SNCC workers in the field, there is little doubt the Purists would win overwhelmingly...

...then he began in earnest...

...From the response, it looked briefly as if Rustin would win well past midnight on the boardwalk where he had lost earlier in the afternoon at the Baptist Church...

...We want increased Social Security benefits for everyone...

...Later, the police also had the good sense not to irk the demonstrators by surrounding them with a protective cordon...

...Our job is to go back and set up Freedom Democratic parties everywhere in the South, you see...

...There they learned the Freedom Democratic party had turned down a compromise that would have given two FDP delegates seats on the regular Democratic Mississippi delegation...

...You have focused national attention on the crucial issue facing the country...

...Among others who supported them were Joseph Rauh, here serving as counsel to the FDP, and Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon...

...We will never place politics above principle...

...Substantively, it is an appeal for intensified political action...

...There had been a scuffle between the Goldwaterites and several local Negro youths, and there was concern lest a new, wider conflict develop...

...And I can only trust Johnson and Humphrey if the entire civil rights movement works toward inspiring love and justice...

...We go back to Mississippi and start where we left off and return in '68...

...Yet when he spoke he gave no quarter: "I don't want to get into a debate with my friend Stokeley, but there seems to be some difference of opinion in the movement about tactics...

...They did welcome the adoption of the decree for the '68 Convention convocation requiring State Democratic organizations "to assure that voters in the state, regardless of race, color, creed or national origin, will have the opportunity to participate fully in party affairs...

...Sunday, Monday, Tuesday the busses kept arriving, filled with participants in the just concluded Mississippi Summer Project, FDP members, CORE and SNCC field workers and rank and file...

...We knew when we went into Mississippi that our work wouldn't be over in a year, or two years, or three, you see...

...Since this may call to mind divisions within other radical movements of other times, it should perhaps be stressed that comparisons would be inaccurate...

...Some people, when they go into the hall, trade in their principle for politics...

...We want medical care for all the aged...

...They can see, at the moment, no middle way...

...they wanted now to give it all the support they could in its struggle for recognition...

...Tuesday evening, before the initial departures the next day, probably better than 1,000 Negro and white men and women ranging in age from late teens to early 30s were on hand...

...lames Forman picked up the theme: "What do we do now...

...And Rustin concluded by warning that if those who favored its acceptance were accused of Uncle Tomism, the civil rights effort was doomed to defeat...

...As each speaker rose, he took care to note that he did not want to sway the delegates but merely to offer his thinking...

...But Fanny Lou Hamer, the sharecropper from Ruleville with the Silly Putty face, quickly steadied the boat...

...Literally strutting her stuff, she damned and defied and sent the circle into a frenzy with shrieks of "Stop...

...Third was the American Nazi party demonstrating nearby, its taunting slogans inviting trouble...

...They must come out holding their heads down...

...After almost eight hours of this kind of talk only two prominent leaders stood to argue that the FDP should hold fast: James Forman, the deceptively boyish director of SNCC, and Robert Moses, the bright but difficult director of the Council of Federated Organizations, theoretically a coordinating agency for the various civil rights groups...

...Most of those present were Politicizers, for the majority of nationally-known civil rights leaders favored acceptance of the compromise...

...Actually, the church was the scene of a direct confrontation between what may fairly be described as the Politicizers and—with no suggestion of greater morality intended —the Purists...

...The issue is proper representation, you see...

...I'd rather go to heaven behind a movement divided on its tactics than to hell with my tactics unified...

...if this is in conflict with the rules let them be changed, or damned...

...population...

...In the ranks of ultra-militants and nationalists, the call for a blackbacklash is growing...

...At 54, he sat on the boardwalk for hours marvelling, "these kids make me feel young again,' and astounding several by recalling the Freedom Rides he led as long ago as 1947 at Chapel Hill, North Carolina...

...Some people, eager for high office [the reference was clearly to Humphrey], compromise...

...First to speak was James Farmer...

...With the young workers returning to their chores in the field, one now has to wait, hopefully, for '68...

...Essentially, the Purists' contention is that "we represent truth and justice...

...NATIONAL REPORTS Waiting for '68 By Myron Kolatch With the Presidential campaign one-quarter gone, last month's vast Democratic charade at Convention Hall has already been properly forgotten...