00:00:01.340 - 00:00:29.310

They came by bus, car and plane loads, some 4000 delegates and perhaps that many observers are expected to jam this good size high school on Gary's west side. And they came from all over the United States delegation, delegation, California. All right press, staff

00:00:29.320 - 00:00:47.130

and delegates only. This national caucus of black Americans is not so much to pick candidates or even leaders as to map a political strategy that will give blacks a bargaining power that cannot be taken lightly by either of the major political parties. To be sure, there

00:00:47.130 - 00:01:04.510

have been pledges to come out of caucuses held already of national support for local black candidates, especially in the nearly a dozen major cities where blacks hold a balance of voting power. But in the case of national candidate Shirley Chisholm, who is the first black woman

00:01:04.510 - 00:01:22.780

to run for president, opinion is sharply and emotionally divided. Her supporters here are strong, but the predominant feeling is she doesn't have a chance. And why waste the effort and money on a loser? And there are other divisions: splinter groups of black nationalists who talk of

00:01:22.780 - 00:01:43.030

farming all black or third world parties this faction being led by one of the conference organizers, poet Immamu Baraka, who used to be known as LeRoi Jones. The strong California delegation of 200 follows a more moderate line, and it is led by San Francisco Assemblyman Willie

00:01:43.030 - 00:02:02.650

Brown. Our delegation will try as best we can to, uh, assist in establishing a national structure that's representative of the black community for black strategy purposes that will include at the upper echelon level, some females and some young people, and that will include some Western representation,

00:02:02.840 - 00:02:20.550

since we obviously are the second largest delegation here, and we obviously have the delegation that bore more expensive than anybody else in order to get here. There's been a good deal of talk about divisiveness already in the convention, uh, split away from the established parties and

00:02:20.550 - 00:02:37.100

forming a black party. What's your opinion of that? Well, I believe that the California delegation will do everything it can to keep all blacks in the political process. Forming a third party would mean obvious disaster. It may be satisfying to some people individually, but it would

00:02:37.100 - 00:03:04.140

not be productive for the black community generally because we're still only 10 to 12% of the total population. And I don't know any place where 10% has been able to wag the tail of the other 90%. It can be

00:03:04.140 - 00:03:20.670

expected that, like all conventions, this one, too, will have delegates divided along special interest lines. And there will also be the customary arm twisting and compromise. But whatever the result, everyone agrees on one thing out of this convention will come a black political force to be

00:03:20.670 - 00:03:27.350

reckoned with on a national scale. Ben Williams reporting from convention headquarters in Gary, Indiana.