An outgrowth of the Freedom Summer of 1964, the MFDP was formed when leaders of the umbrella civil-rights organization in Mississippi, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), realized that it could not register sufficient African Americans for the state’s Democratic primaries to make any difference to the system of racial segregation and discrimination. Instead, COFO enrolled disenfranchised blacks in the MFDP, affiliated the new organization to the Democratic National Committee and sent delegates to Atlantie City for the 1964 Democratic Party convention. Debate at the convention about whether to recognize the MFDP delegates instead of those of the Mississippi Democratic Party was quashed by President Johnson, who feared white southerners would stampede to the Republican Party. While Fannie Lou Hamer argued passionately for the rights of MFDP delegates, Johnson argued that blacks needed to show him gratitude for passing the Civil Rights Act. The black convention movement was one of the legacies of the work of the MFDP.