| At the 1948 Democratic National Political Convention Strom Thurmond fought against the inclusion of Civil Rights plank in the Democratic Platform.
A young representative from Minesota named Hubert H. Humphrey led the fight for the plank. So successful was Humphrey, that Thurmond, and others, bolted the Democratic Party, to form the Dixiecrats for a time, as a short pause on the way to the Republican Party.
For many of us who had any feelings about the Vietnam War, Humphrey represented the worst that any politician could descend to, even worse than Lyndon Johnson.
Yet, upon my more mature reflection, the political scene in the United States just passed Humphrey by. This, of course, is always happening. And we are the lucky ones who see this, and take precautions.
Humphrey died of cancer. It was known months before he actually died. He was being treated as dead long before he was dead. And he knew it.
I remember a news report of him, at the unveiling of a statue, near the end. He was quoted on the toll chemotherapy taken on him, and on what remained of his life.
He said, "There is so much left to be done."
Hubert H. Humphrey, one of the great political tragedies of our age. | 
