Abstract: 'Politics of Change: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Emergence of a Black Political Voice in Mississippi' examines how the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) encouraged the politicization of the state's black citizenry in the years immediately preceding and following the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The MFDP, a protest political party organized by young civil rights leaders, their generational elders, and the state's working black populace emerged in 1964 to challenge the all white state Democratic Party and usher the state's black residents into the two party system after nearly a century of state sponsored disenfranchisement. Twelve years after the inception of the MFDP, the Mississippi Democratic Party was integrated. While the MFDP did not become the Democratic Party in Mississippi, it facilitated the emergence of a black electorate in Mississippi by creating avenues for political expression, eliminating barriers to federal bureaucracies, and expanding the pool of potential political candidates and leaders in the state's black communities. As a result of this mobilization, Freedom Democrats ultimately became the political base for the nationally recognized biracial Democratic Party in Mississippi. The Voting Rights Act and the subsequent litigation by movement organizations ensured access to a ballot, but some black Mississippians, remained outside of the political process. To these individuals, the MFDP, as a symbol of grassroots mobilization and organizing for change, remained salient despite the party's inability to sustain itself organizationally. Although the MFDP did not become the Mississippi Democratic Party, it ensured access to a more meaningful franchise and inspired the political imagination of black Mississippians beyond its institutional limitations. Today, when Mississippians (civil rights activists, opponents, or moderates) speak of the integration of the Mississippi Democratic Party, they collapse that complex process into four words: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.