In Mississippi, Gov. John Bell Williams has, with a wistful look in Ronald Reagan's direction, endorsed Wallace for President. Williams, who lost 28 years of Congressional seniority because he supported Barry Gold-water in '64, has passed along the word that he doesn't care a bit whether his Wallace endorsement means the state's delegation won't get seated in Chicago. But Senator James Eastland, who would much prefer to keep on reasonably cordial terms with his Washington colleagues, has been quietly arranging to polish the state party's image by including a handful of Negroes among the delegates.

So Alabama will likely send a lily-white delegation North, while Mississippi may manage its first integrated group. Both are headed for trouble.

Washington attorney Joe Rauh, who acted as counsel for Negro challengers in '64, is taking a leading hand in behind-the-scenes work to put together the challenges in both states. In Alabama, the likely organizers include former state attorney general Richmond Flowers, who won the lasting love of local Negroes by seeking their votes in his unsuccessful gubernatorial fight against Lurleen Wallace. He will be working closely with leaders of the only state-wide Negro political organization, which is dedicated to supporting the national party.

The Mississippi situation is more muddled. There is now a 50-50 chance that there will be two challenging delegations from the state. Lawrence Guyot, head of the militant Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which staged the '64 challenge, has vowed to send another mostly Negro delegation to Chicago. Rauh, however, is working this time with Negroes and white moderates associated mainly with the Mississippi Young Democrates and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

There is a long history of rancor between the MFDP and the Young Dem-NAACP coaliiton. A meeting between leaders of the two groups last month resulted in little agreement on whether to join forces in a challenge, but another meeting is scheduled for next week.

An MFDP delegation would stand no chance of being seated. It embarrassed the party in '64, squawked loudly over the compromise, and is now so fragmented that it could not possibly claim to represent more than a half dozen counties.

The Young Dems and the NAACP, on the other hand, stand an excellent chance of setting up a formidable delegation. It is probable that a number of powerful industrialists and Delta planters who favor President Johnson will lend their support to a challenge.

The idea would be to prove that the state party opposes Johnson and integration. The insurgents may try to win control of a convention in one or more of the heavily Negro counties. From each county convention, they could send insurgent delegations to the state convention. There, they could offer a series of embarrassing resolutions--supporting LBJ, equal opportunity, full Negro participation in party affairs, and whatever else is dear to the national Democrats and anathema to Mississippi.

The challengers would then hold county elections of their own--in as many as 60 counties--choose a state convention, approve the resolutions, and dispatch them and a well-integrated delegation to Chicago.

At least two members of the Democratic National Committee have been closely involved in developing the plan. Says Louis Martin, the party's top Negro official, "It's got a damn good chance."

If so, it will present anti-Johnson forces with an awkward dilemma. They will want to stress their unity with the nation's Negroes. But the primary concern of the Alabama and Mississippi Negroes coming to Chicago will not be to end the war or to dump Johnson. They will support Johnson, they will be repeating again and again that they support him, and they will be doing everything in their power to get inside the convention hall in order to cast ballots for him.

Should they succeed, the ecstatic delegates are more than likely to urge local Negroes to stay home and watch the festivities on TV. They will not want anyone tinkering with the convention that seated them. The fact is, the Southern insurgent wing of the Democratic party ardently supports Johnson.

"I don't understand their gonadal urge to go up there and vote for Lyndon," sighs a key organizer of the Mississippi challenge. "But they don't give a damn about the war, and they love him."