Ellington

The following column by Bill Minor originally ran in the Times-Picayune on July 11, 1948.

Jackson, Miss.—Mississippi's delegation to the national Democratic convention moves into Philadelphia prepared to lead a parade of Southern states out of the convention in just the sort of walkout that was staged by the South in 1860.

Then it was over a question of extension of slavery into the new areas of the country. Today it is opposition to the nomination of President Truman and the inclusion of his "civil rights" proposals in the Democratic Party platform.

Mississippi has sent her delegation to the national convention with such stringent restrictions on these two subjects that it is almost impossible for the delegation to do any bargaining or compromising in the convention.

From top to bottom, the Mississippi delegates are pledged to stand pat on all instructions set down by the state convention two weeks ago, and Gov. Fielding L. Wright, as leader of the delegation, has stated that the group will "live up to all of them."

Should Gen. Eisenhower become available as a presidential nominee, it is improbable that the Mississippi delegation could vote for him in the national convention even if he were the choice of most of the state's delegates.

The instructions to the delegates make them powerless to vote for any candidate who does not publicly repudiate the civil rights proposals and make a strong statement for states' rights. A public denouncement of the civil rights proposals, even the most ardent anti-Truman Mississippi delegates have admitted, may be a bit too much to expect from a presidential nominee.

One Mississippi Democratic official recently remarked that in the event Eisenhower was drafted by the national convention, it would be necessary for the Mississippi delegation to come back to Jackson, call the state convention back together, and release some of the binding restrictions so that the state and the electors could support "Ike."

The state convention technically "recessed" on June 22 to reconvene on Aug. 3 unless the chairman of the convention feels that there is no new business before the assembly.

Apparently only an Eisenhower draft or the nomination of someone else suitable to the South on the civil rights and states' rights issues will make Mississippi hold the party line.

If the conditions are not met at Philadelphia, the Mississippi delegates will be at the front of the line to walk out of the national convention and go to Birmingham for the "conference" called by the States' Rights Democrats. The Birmingham meeting would "suggest" presidential and vice-presidential candidates considered to the liking of the South.

At the 1860 Democratic convention, seven Southern states had walked out of the convention and, later joined by five more states, held a separate convention at Richmond, Virginia, to nominate their own candidate.

Thus far in the Southern Democratic revolt, there has been no indication that a walkout at Philadelphia would be a South-wide thing. Although States' Rights leaders have predicted that at least seven of the states will join a walkout, only four have made definite signs in that direction.

Mississippi's part in the revolt against present Democratic Party leadership is not entirely new. Back in 1944, the state Democratic convention sent a delegation to the national convention pledged to support U.S. Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia and made the electors free agents so that they could cast their electoral votes for Byrd.

The delegates had voted for Byrd in the national convention. But between the national convention and the general election, the Mississippi Legislature, sitting as a special state convention, put a "pink ticket" on the ballot pledged to vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and it carried the state.

Postscript: As anticipated, Mississippi's "Dixiecrats" bolted the national Democratic convention. Later Mississippi joined several other southern states and held a rump convention in Birmingham, Ala., nominating what was called the "States Rights" ticket. That ticket carried Mississippi and three other southern states in November, but Democrat Harry Truman was elected president.

This story, reprinted by permission of Bill Minor, is included in a collection of Minor's columns, "Eyes on Mississippi" (J. Prichard Morris Books, 2001).