Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody African.

This day, August 23, 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer appeared before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention.

She was there as a representative of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to ask for recognition as the official delegate on behalf of the state of Mississippi.

Her remarks were preempted by a speech from President Johnson, but then later rebroadcast by many of the networks and

we'll get into some of the details of that and why it matters but suffice it to say this stands

as kind of one of the major showdowns in convention history and in the political history of the civil rights era

and since this is Sunday

and this is our election Sunday special

we'll also use this as a chance to not just

talk about this moment

but Hamers career and legacy

the convention

showdowns of the 60s and lots more. And here to do that is as always Nicole

Hammer of Columbia. Hello, Nicky. Hey you, Dody. And our special guest

for today is Dr. Kelly Carter Jackson,

assistant professor at Wellesley College.

Kelly, thank you for doing this.

Hey, thanks for having me.

So do we want to start painting a picture of that actual day?

I mean, I called it a showdown. correct me if you think that's too dramatic of a word.

But what exactly is going on here when we have Fannie Lou Hamer trying to give remarks

...