Wisconsin’s convention delegates can make a difference

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 18: The logo for the Democratic National Convention is displayed at the United Center during a media walkthrough on January 18, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. The convention is scheduled to be held in Chicago from August 19-22, 2024. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In a few months, several hundred Wisconsin progressives will assemble in Milwaukee to elect ninety-five delegates to attend the Democratic National Convention. A quadrennial event, the DNC will be held at the United Center in Chicago where President Joe Biden is expected to be formally nominated for reelection.

While the upcoming Windy City proceedings will largely be perfunctory, the nearly hundred-strong Wisconsin delegates will join a proud tradition of convention attendees, none more influential than those gathered seventy-six years ago in the stifling Philadelphia summer heat of 1948.

The similarities between the two conventions are striking – both featuring a sitting Democratic President (Biden in 2024 and Truman in 1948) running against a Republican nominee who had been defeated just four years prior (Donald Trump, Thomas Dewey). Similarly, national polls reflected widespread skepticism over the respective incumbents. And like 1948, this summer’s convention will include gatherers representing disparate wings of a divided Democratic Party.

Today, potential convention goers find themselves torn over foreign engagements, immigration, and other important topics. In 1948, the Philadelphia delegates were split over the moral issue of their time: civil rights. For the prior century the Democratic Party had been the electoral vehicle of the American South and “states’ rights.” Despite unspeakable atrocities committed against African Americans, many northern liberals steered clear of federal civil rights legislation for fear of alienating the party’s Southern base.

Facing Congressional intransigence, President Harry Truman, allegedly himself once a member of the Ku Klux Klan, felt pressured to take executive action in the wake of widespread violence against African American veterans. Ahead of his party’s national convention, Truman created the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. The Committee’s finished report, entitled “To Secure These Rights,” called for the abolishment of poll taxes, a permanent fair employment practice commission, and federal protection from lynching. These recommendations represented a major break for the party of “states’ rights.” Indeed, the Southern delegates threatened to revolt if the report’s recommendations were added to the 1948 platform.

The will of those Southern delegates may well have carried the day if not for a star-making performance from a young Minneapolis Mayor – Hubert Humphrey – who passionately spoke in favor of the civil rights plank. “Now is the time for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights,” Humphrey bellowed to the enraptured convention crowd.

Despite Humphrey’s inspiring oratory, the final vote outcome was far from certain. As convention chair Sam Rayburn of Texas called each state in alphabetical order, the tally see-sawed back and forth. Ultimately, the Wisconsin delegation unanimously voiced its support for the Committee’s recommendations, securing the adoption of a strong civil rights plank into the platform. While mere prose on paper, the symbolism behind those words was profound. The NAACP called the vote in favor of civil rights “the greatest turning point for… America which has occurred since the Civil War.”

The repercussions from the Philadelphia convention were far-reaching. Harry Truman was reelected in a surprising upset, in part due to increased support from African Americans. Truman oversaw the banning of discrimination within the armed forces, a crucial first step toward widespread desegregation. Hubert Humphrey won a seat in the U.S. Senate that same November, serving for nearly three decades as a champion of progressive causes. In 1964 he was elected Vice President, the same year another Democratic President – Lyndon Baines Johnson – signed the landmark Civil Rights Act.

The Wisconsin delegates returned from the 1948 convention no doubt unaware of the impact their vote held. For the delegates gathered this August in Chicago, they too will have the opportunity to shape the official platform of the world’s oldest political party, including on questions of civil rights. Instead of fellow Americans, this time the debate centers on human rights abroad.

This year Democrats are united in their concern about the risk of authoritarianism at home, but need to hammer out differences on foreign policy. Specifically, Biden faces a brewing rebellion by young people, progressives and Arab American voters over U.S. support for Israel’s bombing in Gaza. Biden has become more outspokenly critical of the civilian death toll as conditions worsen. By the convention, a more clearly defined position on when and if U.S. military aid will be withheld could be critical to Biden’s reelection. At the same time,  there is a rift over U.S. support for Ukraine.

In 2022, thirty members of the House of Representatives urged President Biden to engage in direct talks with Russia. Since then, a growing number of left-leaning groups – including the Democratic Socialists of America – have called for America to wind down its commitment to Ukraine at their own national conventions. A majority of Republican voters already oppose further assistance. No doubt the issue of whether America should continue our support will be raised at the DNC. The loss of US aid would be catastrophic for the Ukrainian people and democracy as a whole. One hopes the Chicago delegates follow the enlightened trail blazed by past Wisconsinites and advocate for the bright sunshine of equal rights, foreign and domestic.

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