Emma Sanders remembers feeling more determined than angry when she helped challenge Mississippi’s all-white delegation to make room for a black voice at the Democratic National Convention 44 years ago.
The Jackson resident was part of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964 when the group tried to unseat the state’s established Democratic Party after decades of exclusion from the electoral process.
At the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver today through Thursday, not only are two thirds of the delegates black, but also they will vote for the first black Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
To Sanders, Obama’s candidacy represents the fruit of the sacrifices she and others made to integrate Mississippi politics.
