“Tired of Dixiecratism?” The Georgia Loyalist Delegate Challenge at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

In August 1968, a group of dissident Georgia Democrats organized a challenge to the state’s certified delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The challenge began as a protest of the politics of segregationist Governor Lester Maddox by the moderates of the state Democratic Party, but it transitioned into a cooperative effort between Georgia’s civil rights and antiwar movements to usurp the autocratic influence of party leaders in determining who would represent them nationally. State representative and civil rights activist Julian Bond led the credentials fight in Chicago that ultimately resulted in the Loyalist challengers earning half the state’s delegates from the party regulars and Bond himself becoming the first African American nominated for Vice President by a major party in the United States.  The events of the challenge were illustrative of the uneasy transition of Georgia’s Democratic Party from a conservative to a liberal organization due in part to the increased participation of African Americans in the second half of the twentieth century. Additionally, it was a significant event in the eventual reformation and democratization of the Democratic Party’s national delegate and presidential candidate selection processes.