Aaron Henry of Mississippi by Minion K. C. Morrison

Author:Minion K. C. Morrison [Morrison, Minion K. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Cultural; Ethnic & Regional, General, Political, Social Activists, History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), Political Science, Civil Rights, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, Minority Studies
ISBN: 9781557287595
Google: aSJLCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: 2015-06-05T05:45:10+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Taking the Reins of the State Democratic Party

Aaron Henry Wrests Power from the Segregationists

Aaron Henry built up tremendous capital in the interval between the 1964 and 1968 national Democratic conventions, but not enough to fundamentally alter the power disparity between the races in Mississippi. While many of the projects that he started after the 1964 convention resulted in considerable resources for the socioeconomic betterment of African Americans, the dream of altering the control of the political process remained unfulfilled. The old maxim established by V. O. Key in 1949 continued to hold: that the maintenance of white political control remained largely animated by the need to prevent the enfranchisement of a large and potentially threatening black electorate.1 Yet a great deal of change did occur, and to get a perspective on how events evolved toward a reallocation of power requires briefly looking backward in the narrative.

The failure of the MFDP challenge in 1964 created a leadership vacuum that Henry ultimately filled as things evolved. The altered landscape emerged as a product of the disagreement among movement activists about the direction of the social change campaign. As has been shown, some activists saw the MFDP as an alternative and independent party in a state where the only other functioning party denied blacks membership. It exacerbated their chagrin that the parent National Democratic Party did not disavow this disloyalty from the state party.2 Other disaffected activists went even further rejecting collaboration in a capitalist social order that they deemed inherently biased against power reallocation.3 Henry had a different perspective, perceiving an opportunity to open up the political process by negotiating with potential local partners and throwing out the segregationists. He elaborated upon this, saying, “My idea of the MFDP in the beginning was that it would be a real political party—a party of inclusion for labor organizations and liberal whites, as well as for much of the black population. I had hoped we could supplant the old-guard Democratic Party in Mississippi.”4

Henry did not see the convention outcome as a catastrophic failure, but a “painful time,” which dictated even stronger leadership “through the times of adjustment.”5 He began to focus on the part of the convention compromise that had implications for the future organization of the state party. The NDC required the state party to open membership to African Americans in the future, and pledged to establish procedures for all states to guarantee and generate open participation for delegate selection.6 Henry made the calculation that the state party would remain segregated and thus make its ouster a foregone conclusion in 1968. In that case an alternative organization needed to be positioned to take advantage of that circumstance.

Henry worked diligently to take advantage of what he perceived to be the improbability that the national party could again sanction seating the regulars without at least some degree of integration of the state party structure. He evinced an unabashed belief that the best opportunities for blacks lay in the Democratic Party. This was not just blind faith.

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