29 august 1968 & channing phillips for president
#OTD 29 August 1968 Channing Phillips was on the floor of the Democratic Convention in Chicago as a nominee for the president of the United States. Phillips, head of the city's Democratic National Committee, led the District of Columbia delegation at the convention. Prior to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (white), Phillips was head of the Kennedy campaign in the city and he and other committee members were prepared to endorse him at the convention. After his assassination, the committee chose not to endorse Vice-President Hubert Humphrey (white) for the presidential nomination because of his stance on the Vietnam War and cities.
Courtesy Smithsonian Collections Search Center, Channing Phillips for President pin-back button, 1968.
Philip Stern (white), one of the DC delegates, nominated Channing Phillips for president. (Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary seconded the nomination.) 21 of the 23 delegates from DC endorsed the nomination. (The other two went to Humphrey.) Phillips received an additional 46 votes from 17 other delegations at the convention. His nomination is considered a first--the first time a black person had received a nomination from the Democratic Party on the convention floor. All of the previous nominees, since the first convention in 1832, were white. A convention-wide caucus of delegates strategized to widen the nomination beyond the DC delegation.
Your comments are welcome below. Did you, family members or neighbors know Channing Phillips? Did you know Philip Stern? Did you know any of the other delegates? Did you attend the convention? Do you have photographs, buttons or other material from the convention? You may comment privately here.
Photo courtesy: New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images, 29 August 1968. Fair use.
Art Carter, "18 States Cast Vote for Phillips," Baltimore Afro-American 31 August 1968.
Shirley Elder, "Phillips Gets 67 Votes as Symbolic Nominee," Evening Star 29 April 1968.
National Archives has an audio recording of Philip Stern nominating Channing Phillips. Unfortunately, it has not been digitized.
