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NY 100-7629 "T also have the impression (though a detailed credential report was not available at conventian'!s.end) -#\ that the composition of the delegates was an improvement over past conventions. There were 617 voting delegates, 65 alternates and 95 fraternal delegates and observers, making a total of 777. So that numerically the convention was larger than most in the past, which have usually ranged between 400-500.) "Also, a large part, probably a majority, of the | fraternal delegates were trade unionists. There was a good- sized representation from auto, 16 packinghouse workers came from Chicago, and there were others. In addition, of course, there were some trade unionists, although I don't know how many, who came directly from branches as voting delegates. \W "In addition, there was an important number of delegates from some of the small-community branches especially in the South who were attending their first convention and are not yet committed to the policies of the leadership. This does not mean that all the old NAACP warhorses were not aa U there - they were. But there were many indications that they Bo met a sterner challenge to their leadership than any time since es 1950. But more of that later, Ww a "Another major positive feature of the convention Se was the strong current of anti-McCarthyism. This sentiment ~\ was more pronounced than last year and resulted in what in my : = opinion is the strongest anti-McCarthy resolution adopted by : = any Negro people's organization to date. And, as we shall see, !: this resolution was passed in face of the most determined : effort on the part of reactionary forces in the convention to defeat it. w "“Purthermore, there was the usual healthy anti- bureaucracy sentiment of the rank and file delegates which i found many opportunities to express itself in opposition to the. railroading of measures, the handling of the chair, the curtailing of discussion, etc. w