“P” is for Progressive Democratic Party. Aware that many White Democrats in South Carolina opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection to a fourth term, African American activists sought to demonstrate their loyalty to the National Party by mobilizing Black support for the president. By May 1944, that effort had morphed into the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). The party attempted to integrate the state’s delegation to the 1944 national convention but failed. In 1944 the PDP did run a candidate against incumbent senator Olin D. Johnston. Over the next fifteen years the party routinely ran candidates for various office in South Carolina. In 1948, the PDP again tried to get its delegates seated in the national Democratic Party’s Convention but lost a bitter struggle. During the 1950s the Progressive Democratic Party experienced a steady erosion in strength and in 1964 disbanded.
“P” is for Progressive Democratic Party
