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Atlantic City leaders unveiled a Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker historical marker at Kennedy Plaza on Tuesday, Aug. 20. The plaque is the trail's first one outside of the state of Mississippi.
The marker commemorates when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) arrived in Atlantic City for the 1964 Democratic National Convention. The MFDP's delegates argued that their state's all-white Democratic party violated the national party's rules by excluding Black Mississippians.
Civil rights activist and MFDP co-founder Fannie Lou Hamer spoke in front of the DNC's credentials committee to demand mandatory integrated state delegations, according to the National Women's History Museum.
"Although the MFDP was not seated, their effort led to the creation of Mississippi's first integrated delegation in 1968," the historical marker reads.
Rep. Maxine Waters, who was 24 during the 1964 DNC, shared Hamer's story during her speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 19.
"[Hamer] told the people in the room about the violence she suffered at the hands of white police because she, a Black woman, had demanded her right to vote," Rep. Waters said. "When she finished, she asked the country a simple but profound question: "Is this America?" She didn't get the outcome she was hoping for in Atlantic City but you can bet that when the official Mississippi delegation was seated at the convention four years later, Fannie Lou Hamer was sitting there with them."
During the marker's unveiling, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way said Hamer's story must be told to help the state and country heal from centuries of racism and discrimination.
"This history probably makes a lot of us uncomfortable," said Lt. Gov. Way. "It can also be difficult to hear because people from the North sometimes like to think that this isn't our history too but what happened in Mississippi was also happening right here in New Jersey.
"We can't shy away from the hard stuff in our past. We all have to see it and hear it to learn from it because a woman from Mississippi who spoke about her experience in New Jersey had the power to change the entire nation."
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves was also at the marker's ceremony and thanked the greater Atlantic City area for preserving the shared history of the two regions.
"It is my hope that countless future Americans will stop here, read its story, and take with them a little piece of history as they go forth from Atlantic City, and in doing so, I hope they take with them a little piece of Mississippi as well," Gov. Reeves. "May we never forget the lessons of the past and may we never tire of fighting for a better future."
A statue of Hamer was also unveiled inside Boardwalk Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2023.
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