The 1960 Democratic National Convention
On Friday, July 22nd, 1960, a small airplane touched down at the airport in Los Angeles, California. A crowd of reporters were on hand to record the moment a tall, lanky man stepped off the plane with his wife following right behind him. The man stopped to talk to a few reporters, his Southern accent making it clear he wasn’t from around here. He then climbed into a waiting car to take him to the hotel. Everyone knew who this very important person was: it was none other than Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful Senate Majority Leader. A mercurial force of nature, Johnson had spent the last two months as the presumptive Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Against the advice of some, the sitting Vice President had chosen LBJ as his running mate primarily for two reasons:
- Johnson was seen as a compromise figure that could attract Southern voters who weren’t supportive of the Dixiecrats while at the same time would also be acceptable to Northern voters
- Johnson was the quintessential Congressional deal-maker who knew instinctively how to twist arms and sweet-talk members of Congress into voting his way
Offered a spot on the ticket, Johnson - craving power - accepted despite a stiff warning from former Vice President John Nance Garner (1933-1941) that the office wasn’t
“worth a bucket of warm piss.”
With the convention scheduled to open in three days, LBJ arrived in Los Angeles early to do some homework on Jackson’s behalf. Scoop wanted his friend to meet with the gathering Southern delegates and gauge their mood heading into that final weekend. With the South up in arms over his desire to lead the Democratic Party in a pro-civil rights direction, Jackson wanted Johnson to find out for him how bad things might get inside the convention hall.
Two days after LBJ checked in, Air Force Two touched down in the City of Angels carrying the Vice President and his campaign team. A crowd of 5,000 people were there at the airport to welcome them. Jackson had spent the previous night in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he attended a party thrown in his honor by the famous entertainer Frank Sinatra. A politically active Democrat since the 1940s, Sinatra was an avid Jackson supporter and was looking forward to campaigning for him in the fall. Although Scoop didn’t really care for Las Vegas all that much, he appreciated the honor and attended Sinatra’s party like a good sport. Informed that the African-American entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. would be there, Jackson made it a point to be seen conversing with him. When asked later about their conversation, Davis would reply that the Vice President
“is a very pleasant man to talk to. He treated me like a normal human being, which is quite refreshing considering how other white men have talked to me.”
From Las Vegas, it was on to L.A. and a hotel suite reserved at the Biltmore (the Johnsons occupied the suite directly across the hall). Jackson’s team also had rooms at the Biltmore, which included:
- John Kenneth Galbraith: a Harvard pro-Keynesian economist whom Jackson had recruited to be his economic advisor
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.: the chief White House speechwriter who was pulling double-duty working for both Sparkman and Jackson
- Archibald Cox: a Schlesinger associate from New Jersey who was serving as the chief of Jackson’s campaign staff
Although Jackson’s suite was his headquarters for the convention, he and his team filed into Johnson’s suite that Sunday for the first meeting. This was done largely because Scoop thought it was important for him politically to make his running mate feel important. Once the men were settled down, Jackson asked Johnson straight up what the mood of the Southern delegates were. Leaning forward, the Texan told him that he had no support in half the South. Delegates stretching from Maryland to Louisiana were controlled by the Dixiecrats and they were ready to give him hell as soon as possible. He could only count on solid support from Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida. Jackson could further count on Texas and Georgia to support him…but mainly because Johnson had twisted the arms of the delegation leaders in those two states into doing so. As for North Carolina,
“they can’t decide which side of the fence to piss on.”
Even though Jackson numerically had enough delegates to secure the nomination on the first ballot without much Southern support, the presumptive nominee was still apprehensive about the Dixiecrats. There was no telling what they would do in order to disrupt the proceedings.
On July 25th, the 1960 Democratic National Convention officially came to order inside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. From the moment the convention chairman banged his gavel, it was clear that trouble was brewing in the air. Outside the Arena, civil rights protestors organized by Dr. King were demanding that the Democrats show support for their cause by having a firm pro-civil rights plank in their party platform. They wouldn’t accept anything less and held up signs saying so. Inside the Arena, tensions ran high as pro- and anti-civil rights delegates mingled on the convention floor. The open hostility between them even got physical. Occasionally, things got rough and the police had to be called in to break up fist fights between hotheaded state representatives. Television cameras captured these fights for national consumption, giving viewers a taste of the turmoil engulfing the Party of Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson. Watching from the vantage point of the NBC broadcasting booth, Brinkley turned to Huntley and wryly remarked:
“To the untrained eye, Chet, this convention looks like a madhouse. People are punching each other and are making a lot of noises. To those who have been to these things in the past, this is business as usual.”
Brinkley had a point: Democratic conventions had a reputation for being volatile and sometimes downright nasty. In the week to come, 1960 would prove to be no different.
The highlight of the first day was the convention keynote address. It was delivered by Frank Church, a young man who was also celebrating his thirty-sixth birthday that same Monday. A freshman Senator from Idaho (he was elected in 1956), Church was a progressive who was seen as representing the future of the Democratic Party. While acknowledging the divisive issue of civil rights, Church told his audience that the party in power had so much to be proud of. The main thesis of his speech was that thanks to the visionary leadership of Presidents Stevenson and Sparkman, the nation was better off now than it was at the beginning of 1953. Despite two recessions during the 1950s, the economy was on solid ground and the average citizen still enjoyed the affluence spurred on by the postwar economic boom of the late 1940s. America was more industrious than ever before, giving every American the chance to enjoy the full benefits of consumerism. If the Republicans were arguing that it was time for a change, Church set the tone of the convention by making the counterargument that Americans under Democratic leadership never had it so good. The speakers who followed him repeated the slogan
“Eight Years of Peace and Progress”.
The big highlight of Tuesday was the address by the President of the United States. With “Hail to the Chief” announcing his arrival, Sparkman – flanked by his family – walked up to the podium (now adorned with the Presidential seal on the front). Receiving a respectful welcome from the audience, the President waved and took in the moment. Once the applause had died down, Sparkman proceeded to deliver his remarks. Regardless of whether they liked him or not, everyone agreed that he was an energized speaker and here he lived up to that reputation. Sparkman gave a passionate speech which whipped the listeners up into a frenzy-like atmosphere:
“My friends, I have come before you to express my great pride in the America of today and my great confidence in the brightness of her future. The stubborn fact is that this nation is enjoying unprecedented prosperity in a world made peaceful by the cooperation of our friends and allies. From Canada and Cuba to Yugoslavia and Egypt to Japan and Australia, there are many countries around the world that see the United States as a loyal partner in this great and unrelenting struggle against those who seek oppression.”
He credited
“vigorous and imaginative leadership, the genius of our scientists, and the skill of our armed forces” for maintaining America’s role as leader of the free world. With relish, he challenged Knowland’s assertion that Big Government was Bad Government by rattling off achievements that the Federal Government had made possible such as agricultural reform, greater conservation and environmental protection, Federal aid to education, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, and the Brooks-Houser Space Act (which established NASA).
“To belittle these beneficial programs as a waste of money inflicts such insult to the notion of what is right that I can barely contain my indignation,” he told a cheering crowd in his distinct Southern accent. It was an dynamic address, one which encapsulated the best the Democrats had been able to achieve so far and laid the foundation for why they deserved another four years.
Watching the speech on television, Jackson felt the torch being passed to him. It would be up to him to make the oratorical effort to explain how he would build on the successes of his two predecessors. How he even found the time to work with Schlesinger in crafting his acceptance speech is a mystery considering all the visitors he received during the convention. He gave an interview to writer Norman Mailer, who was doing an article about the convention for the men’s magazine “Esquire”. Jackson paid his respects to his idol Eleanor Roosevelt, who gave a speech at the convention linking the Fair Deal to her late husband’s New Deal. With Los Angeles being the home of Hollywood, the Vice President was visited by several celebrities expressing their support for his campaign. Ronald Reagan stopped by the hotel suite and said that he would like to give some speeches for him in the fall. The black singer Harry Belafonte of “Calypso” fame talked to Jackson about doing a television campaign commercial appealing to those blacks who could vote to vote Democratic. Democratic couple Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh was photographed exiting Scoop’s suite at one point. Sinatra, who was in town to sing the National Anthem at the convention, re-united with the Vice President and introduced him to his Las Vegas pal Dean Martin. Then there was the visit by Clark Gable and his wife Carole Lombard (1908-1994). Gable was one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, starring in such films as the 1939 epic “Gone with the Wind” (Gable’s role as Rhett Butler earned him the Best Actor Oscar). That same year, Gable married his third wife Lombard, an actress who specialized in comedies such as 1942’s “They All Kissed the Bride”. In a town where celebrity marriages come and go, the Gable-Lombard marriage stood out for its’ stability and longevity. They were a happy couple despite their completely opposite political views: Gable was a conservative Republican while Lombard was a liberal Democrat. Remembering their meeting years later, Jackson recalled that Lombard pretty much dragged her pro-Knowland husband along to meet the presumptive standard-bearer of her political party.
The afternoon of Wednesday, July 27th would see the Democratic Party change forever. Thousands of people poured into the convention hall, including the 1,500-plus delegates, to watch the balloting process unfold – not to mention the millions of television viewers across the country. Jackson watched on television as his good friend Washington Senator Warren Magnuson formally placed his name in nomination. In his speech, Magnuson declared that Jackson had the perfect combination of being
“firm in foreign policy and enlightened in domestic affairs. My friends, you cannot ask for any better!”
He went on to hail the Vice President as
“the only man who has the maturity and the experience to be our next President.”
Following the pro-Jackson demonstration out on the floor came Byrd’s turn for time in the limelight. Scoop took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat, filled with uncertainty. This was the Dixiecrats’ chance to disrupt the convention, but how would they do it? He would get his answer when his Southern rival made a surprise appearance at the podium. Amid mixed reactions of cheers and jeers, the elderly Virginia Senator angrily condemned
“the high-jacking of our great Party by a cabal of devious individuals who seek to destroy our long-standing respect for the rights of the states in order to win the votes of those who are inferior.”
This racially-charged speech set off an intensely emotional explosion inside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. With passions on both sides at fever pitch, Harry F. Byrd withdrew his name from consideration and proceeded to walk out of the building. Almost as if on cue, the delegations of seven states followed Byrd’s lead. Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas all vacated their seats and walked out of the convention in protest. It was an astounding moment: the collapse of the Democratic Solid South broadcast live on television. Pundits openly wondered how the Democrats could recover from the loss of their main base of electoral support – support that would take decades for them to rebuild. Standing behind Jackson, Cox glumly remarked:
“I think we just lost the election.”
This was a sentiment Jackson didn’t share at all. He wanted to be President and he wasn’t going to let the Dixiecrats get in the way. Despite the pre-balloting drama, Vice President Henry Martin Jackson was nominated for President on the first ballot. The rest of the Southern delegates – including wobbly North Carolina – fell into line behind the new standard-bearer. He became the first sitting Vice President since John C. Breckinridge one hundred years earlier to be elevated to the top of the ticket. Two months after being offered the position, Lyndon Baines Johnson was nominated for Vice President despite concerns from some liberals over his mixed voting record in Congress. With the Jackson-Johnson ticket officially ratified, the convention concluded Thursday evening with the acceptance speech. John F. Kennedy had the honor of introducing
“our next President of the United States” to the cheering convention crowd. In an eloquent speech that highlighted his friend’s strengths, JFK touched on the issue of civil rights which had splintered the Democratic Party into two irreconcilable factions. He said that President Jackson would offer
“no compromise of basic principles – no evasion of basic controversies – and no second-class citizenship for any American anywhere in this country.”
After the Massachusetts Senator finished speaking, he was joined at the podium by Jackson and Johnson. Scoop shook his friend’s hand, leaning in close and whispering his approval of the speech amid the enthusiastic roar from the audience. While the band played the state song “Washington, My Home”, Washington and Texas delegates triggered a wave of pro-Jackson/Johnson signs to be raised up across the convention floor. JFK then withdrew to the side when the President walked up to join the new ticket at the rostrum. Despite the abandonment by the Alabama delegates, Sparkman was firmly behind his Vice President. He wanted Jackson to be his successor and publically endorsed him despite being called a traitor by Dixiecrats for doing so. After sharing the stage with the President and the Vice Presidential nominee, it was time for Jackson to step into the limelight and give his acceptance speech. Accepting his invitation, Mrs. Roosevelt sat in the VIP box a short distance away so she could hear the Presidential nominee pay his respects to her two-term husband during the speech.
“Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom,” Jackson explained to a hushed audience,
“Gave our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal used that framework to provide security to those in need. The Fair Deal of which I have talked about will finish the work of guaranteeing to every single American that this Government will always be there to help you up when you fall down.”
As much as he admired FDR, he couldn’t match his famous rhetorical skills. Jackson wasn’t a charismatic speaker; his acceptance speech came across as flat and colorless at times...not exactly the kind of delivery which fires up conventions. The truth was that Jackson was better equipped at dealing with small crowds; large crowds such as the convention before him simply overwhelmed him. Aware of his disappointing performance, Scoop pushed himself forward through the speech. On the issue of war and peace, he was adamant that money should be no object when it came to national defense:
“The richest country in the world can afford whatever it needs for defense.”
He shot down his critics on the far left who accused him of being a peace-endangering hawk:
“I’m not a hawk or a dove. I just don’t want my country to be a pigeon.”
He defended his “Evil Empire” attitude of the Soviet Union and proclaimed that the only way to prevent the Cold War from heating up was through
“strength, the only word Mr. Khrushchev respects.”
He showed scorn towards those countries, such as the Czech Republic, who wanted peace with the Soviets
“at any price. What they fail to understand is that when you get peace at any price, that price is worthless.”
Pivoting back to domestic concerns, Jackson defended the bold measures of the Fair Deal from conservative attacks. Against the advice of some, he didn’t demonize conservatives like Knowland and Goldwater as extremists who wanted to roll back progress. The Vice President openly expressed his respect for conservatives...partly because those same people supported his stances on national defense and anti-Communism. As the Democratic nominee saw it, the problem with conservatives when it came to domestic issues was that they
“see America like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size.”
Jackson disagreed. He saw America as being
“more like a quilt -- many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.”
That color included black. He dismissed the Dixiecrats as a special interest group
“whose only interest is to prop up the discredited notion that skin color determines your superiority.”
He said that a black man of good character who worked hard was equal to a white man of good character who also worked hard and vice-versa. It was time for the Democratic Party to break free from the bonds of white superiority and embrace racial equality. Failure to do so, Scoop warned with evident conviction,
“Will render this Party irrelevant to the changing attitudes of our nation. The old era is ending. The old ways simply will not do.”
Feeling exhausted after the convention, the Vice President flew home to Everett, Washington to recuperate. He received an excited welcome by the town upon his arrival. All of Everett was in a heady mood: their favorite son was now one campaign away from becoming the thirty-eighth President of the United States. Of course, winning the election was another story. By Monday, August 1st, Jackson had a pretty good idea of the challenge he faced on the road to the White House. The Republicans had unified behind the Knowland-Bush ticket, slashing Jackson’s six-point lead in the Gallup Poll a month earlier in half. Other polls also showed the two major candidates in a dead heat due to the fact that both men were seen as being men of ability, convictions, and character. Post-convention polls showed that Jackson had a narrow 3-to-2 lead over Knowland in the five biggest states:
- Leaning Democratic: Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas (totaling eighty-three electoral votes)
- Leaning Republican: California and New York (totaling seventy-seven electoral votes)
Jackson needed 269 electoral votes to cinch victory and news from the South complicated the math. In the wake of the walk-out in Los Angeles, top Dixiecrats met in Mississippi and announced that they were putting forward a third-party ticket to challenge what they saw as a war on their segregationist beliefs. Byrd was selected to headline their ticket; Byrd in turn recruited movement founder Strom Thurmond as his running mate. With the Byrd-Thurmond ticket running amok in the South and Knowland spoiling for a good fight elsewhere, Jackson was clearly in the fight of his political life. With three months to go until Election Day, no one knew for certain what the outcome of this hotly-contested three-way race would be.