At the 1964 Democratic National Convention , which followed Freedom Summer in Mississippi , Rustin became an adviser to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party ( MFDP ) ; they were trying to gain recognition as the legitimate , non-Jim Crow delegation from their state , where blacks had been officially disenfranchised since the turn of the century ( as they were generally throughout the South ) and excluded from the official political system . DNC leaders Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey offered only two non-voting seats to the MFDP , with the official seating going to the regular segregationist Mississippi delegation . Rustin , following a line set by Shachtman and AFL-CIO leaders , urged the MFDP to take the offer . MFDP leaders , including Fannie Lou Hamer and Bob Moses , angrily rejected the arrangement ; many of their supporters became highly suspicious of Rustin . Rustin 's attempt to compromise appealed to the Democratic Party leadership
1964 Democratic National Convention
1964 Democratic National Convention
Bayard Rustin