As a grassroots organizing strategy, the MFDP was a real success. It politicized many poor black Mississippians, developed new grassroots leaders, and even brought the dire situation of black people in the state to national attention. But the MFDP delegation's experience at the Atlantic City convention was frustrating. Because considerations of partisan politics outweighed those of justice and democracy, even the leaders of national civil rights organizations defected from the MFDP's cause. Ella Baker was not surprised to discover that politicians and the civil rights leaders who looked to
...more
