Published Monday, June 22, 1998
   
Humphrey's 1948 civil rights speech shook Democrats
By ROCHELLE OLSON / Associated Press Writer
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- In a sweltering Philadelphia convention hall
   50 years ago, HubertHumphrey stepped to the podium at the Democratic
   National Convention. Gaunt, sweaty and exhausted, he launched the
   speech he feared could break his party -- and his political future.
   
   Humphrey usually departed from his prepared text, but this time he
   read each word, speaking slowly and deliberately.
   
   " People -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century.
   People -- all kinds and sorts of people -- look to America for
   leadership -- for help -- for guidance, " Humphrey said.
   
   The 37-year-old mayor of Minneapolis had agonized for days, staying up
   late and not eating, over whether to give the speech that called on
   the party to take a bold stand on civil rights.
   
   Humphrey was trapped between party liberals who wanted a strong civil
   rights platform plank and Southerners who could hurt President Harry
   Truman' s re-election bid if such a plank passed.
   
   His speech, a mere eight minutes long, shaped history as few have.
   
   " There are those who say to you -- we are rushing this issue of civil
   rights, " Humphrey shouted. " I say we are 172 years too late. ... The
   time has arrived for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of
   state' s rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of
   human rights."
   
   Humphrey' s oration sparked a demonstration that lasted as long as the
   speech, and the Democrats adopted the strong civil rights plank.
   
   The Southerners split and nominated South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond
   as their presidential candidate. Truman was re-elected anyway,
   narrowly defeating GOP New York Gov. Thomas Dewey.
   
   Heard by up to 70 million people on radio and television, the speech
   made Humphrey famous. He went on to be President Lyndon B. Johnson' s
   vice president and a U.S. senator. The Civil Rights Act passed in
   1964.
   
   If things had gone differently, Humphrey could have torpedoed his own
   career. The fight over whether to put the plank up for a vote was so
   bitter that an Illinois senator called Humphrey a " pipsqueak."
   
   " He was very gutty, " said W. Harry Davis, a friend of Humphrey' s
   and Minneapolis NAACP president in 1964 and 1965. " I think a lot of
   people thought that way but there weren' t too many people who would
   get up in front of a full convention and say that. It was a speech
   that was destiny."
   
   That wasn' t clear at the time.
   
   Fred Gates, a Minneapolis lobbyist who worked for Humphrey and whose
   father was close to him, said he spoke to Humphrey about the decision
   years later.
   
   " I remember him telling me he had all kinds of people wanting him not
   to do it. Finally he went to his father, " Gates said. According to
   Gates, Humphrey' s father said, " It may end your career, but it' s
   the right thing to do and you' ve always done the right thing."
   
   Humphrey told the delegates, " I know that we can -- I know that we
   shall -- begin here the fuller and richer realization of that hope --
   that promise of a land where all men are free and equal, and each man
   uses his freedom and equality wisely and well."
   
   It was HubertHumphrey Sr., a South Dakota delegate, who cast that
   state' s eight votes for the plank.
   
   Davis compared the speech to Abraham Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address.
   
   " He had the guts enough to get up in front of those people to put his
   political future on the line, maybe even his life. It made me feel
   proud, " Davis said.
   
   Davis grew up in segregated Minneapolis. He recalled being spat upon
   by white people, seeing his mother maligned and his father, a
   professional baseball player, unable to stay overnight in the towns he
   played.
   
   " As I got older I wondered, ' When is the good Lord going to change
   this?" ' Davis said.
   
   He marks Humphrey' s speech as the moment the door cracked open.
   
   Steve Sandell, director of the Humphrey Forum at Humphrey Institute,
   agreed. The forum begins commemorating the speech Tuesday, although
   Humphrey actually delivered it in July 1948.
   
   While Davis and Sandell say the speech was part moment, a lot of it
   was the man.
   
   " When he spoke about something, I think he put what he had on the
   table, " Sandell said.
   
   Nellie Stone Johnson, a 92-year-old labor activist who knew Humphrey,
   said he was young, energetic and " had guts enough to say it out loud
   and go right into the heart of the lion."
   
   The power of special interests and intense media attention have
   conspired against any modern politician delivering a speech as
   powerful as Humphrey' s, Sandell said.
   
   Humphrey died in 1978 of cancer. Thurmond, now a U.S. senator,
   declined a request for an interview.<