The Former State Senator Was Involved in Two Democratic National Conventions

1968 and 1972 Democratic National Conventions, Chicago and Miami Beach, Florida 

Charlie Butts went to Chicago in 1968 as an aide to Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes, who was a Hubert Humphrey delegate. In Miami Beach in 1972, Butts served as a George McGovern delegate. Today he’s a retired state senator.

We were trying to lay the groundwork for some kind of national role for Carl, either in the Cabinet or, as mayor, one of the right-hand persons of the president. He spoke in front of a number of delegations.

I went out to Grant Park. The feeling of tension and anger was palpable. After the unnecessarily brutal treatment of those young people by the Chicago police, I think I talked with Mayor Stokes some about what would we do in the same circumstances in Cleveland. Clearly, he would’ve had a very different reaction.

A big battle in 1968 was whether the integrated Mississippi delegation would be seated instead of the segregated one. In the early ’60s, I’d registered people to vote in Mississippi. I worked very closely with Aaron Henry of Clarksdale, Mississippi. In 1968, he was a leader of the integrated Mississippi delegation. There was a compromise: They seated half of each. In 1972, Aaron was chair of the Mississippi delegation, period.