FIRST PERSON

Walter Mondale On His First Convention

As Told To Bruce Stokes

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008


First PersonRecollections of one's first Democratic convention are like reminiscences of one's first kiss. Although time may have blurred some of the details, for many veteran Democratic convention-goers assembling this week in Denver, the exhilarations and the frustrations of past party gatherings are fondly memorable.
• John Podesta
• Barbara Mikulski
• Madeleine Albright
• Tom Donilon

My first convention was 1964 in Atlantic City. There was an all-white-male Mississippi delegation, which was segregationist. Most did not support [Lyndon] Johnson and ended up supporting [Barry] Goldwater. Party rules had not confronted what was going on in the South.

And I was the chairman of the subcommittee of the Credentials Committee that shaped the rule change that prohibited any future discrimination. That is when the Southern segregationists left our party and became Republicans. But it had to be done. It was a big day in the history of our country and our party. And we have a future as a party because we opened up. The [nomination of Barack Obama] shows the progress we have made and what was possible because of that rule change.

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