| 1964 Presidential Election | |
|---|---|
  |
|
| Convention | |
| Date(s) | August 24 – August 27 |
| City | Atlantic City, New Jersey |
| Venue | Convention Center |
| Candidates | |
| Presidential Nominee | Lyndon Johnson of Texas |
| Vice Presidential Nominee | Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota |
| ‹ 1960 · 1968 › | |
The 1964 National Convention of the Democratic Party of the United States took place at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 24 - 27 1964. It resulted in the nomination of the incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson (who had been vice president under John F. Kennedy) of Texas for President and Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota for Vice President.
The convention took place less than a year after President Kennedy's assassination. On the last day of the convention Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy introduced a short film in honor of his brother's memory. Appearing on the convention floor, Kennedy received 22 minutes of uninterrupted applause, causing him to nearly break into tears. Speaking about his brother's vision for the country, Robert Kennedy famously quoted from Romeo & Juliet:
[...] and when [he] shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai E. Stevenson introduced a memorial film the same day for former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had died on November 7, 1962.
Mississippi controversy
At the national convention the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) claimed the seats for delegates for Mississippi, not on the grounds of the Party rules, but because the official Mississippi delegation had been elected by a Jim Crow primary. The party's liberal leaders supported an even division of the seats between the two delegations; Johnson was concerned that, while the regular Democrats of Mississippi would probably vote for Goldwater anyway, rejecting them would lose him the South. Eventually, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Reuther and the black civil rights leaders including Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King, and Bayard Rustin worked out a compromise: the MFDP took two seats; the regular Mississippi delegation was required to pledge to support the party ticket; and no future Democratic convention would accept a delegation chosen by a discriminatory poll. Joseph Rauh, the MFDP's lawyer, initially refused this deal, but they eventually took their seats. Many white delegates from Mississippi and Alabama refused to sign any pledge, and left the convention; and many young civil rights workers were offended by any compromise. [1]
Notes
- ^ Unger and Unger, LBJ; a Life (1999) pp. 325-6; Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960-1973 (1998), p. 164; Evans and Novak (1966) 451-56 claim that the MFDP fell under the influence of "black radicals" and rejected their seats.
See also
| Preceded by 1960 |
Democratic National Conventions | Succeeded by 1968 |
 |
This article related to the politics of the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
