1968 Democratic National Convention
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The 1968 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968, for the purposes of choosing the Democratic nominee for the 1968 U.S. presidential election.[1]
1968 already had been a tumultuous year for the United States, with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., and widespread protests of the Vietnam War. The convention achieved notoriety due to clashes between protesters and police, and due to the generally chaotic atmosphere of the event. The turmoil was widely publicized by the mass media on-hand for the convention, resulting in a nationwide debate about the convention and leading to a flood of articles and books about the event.
The keynote speaker was Senator Daniel Inouye.[2]
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[edit] Nomination
The decision of a Presidential nominee was particularly difficult for the Democrats that year, due to the split in the party over the Vietnam War, and Kennedy's assassination. On one side, Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, D-Minn., put forward a decidedly anti-war campaign, calling for the immediate withdrawal from the region. On the other side, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey called for a policy more in line with President Lyndon B. Johnson's policy, which focused on making any reduction of force contingent on concessions extracted in the Paris Peace Talks.
The Democrats eventually settled on Humphrey, but would lose the election to Richard M. Nixon. The confusion of the convention, and the unhappiness of many liberals with the outcome, led the Democrats to begin reforms of their nominating process, increasing the role of primaries and decreasing the power of party delegates in the selection process.
| Presidential tally | Vice Presidential tally: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hubert H. Humphrey | 1759.25 | Edmund S. Muskie | 1942.5 |
| Eugene J. McCarthy | 601 | Not Voting | 604.25 |
| George S. McGovern | 146.5 | Julian Bond | 48.5 |
| Channing Phillips | 67.5 | David Hoeh | 4 |
| Daniel K. Moore | 17.5 | Edward M. Kennedy | 3.5 |
| Edward M. Kennedy | 30.25 | Others | 19.25 |
[Source for roll call votes: Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1973.]
[edit] Protests and police response
Expecting protests, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley repeatedly announced "Law and order will be maintained", and an 11 p.m. curfew was implemented. [1]
The mob scene was agitated by various speeches and a raucous electric performance from the rock band The MC5, as well as the 'nomination' of Pigasus for president. Though many musicians were scheduled to perform, the MC5 were the only band to play at the convention, and turned in a legendary eight-hour gig.
Anti-war demonstrators protested throughout the convention. Initially the protests were uneventful, but tempers gradually heated, and soon police and protestors were clashing all around the convention center, the Chicago International Amphitheater (in the streets, as well in Lincoln Park and Grant Park). Daley took a particularly hard line against the protesters, refusing permits for rallies and marches, and calling for whatever use of force necessary to subdue the crowds. A 1968 Time article noted that "demonstrators constantly taunted the police and in some cases deliberately disobeyed reasonable orders."[2]
Despite the poor behavior of some protestors, there was widespread criticism that the Chicago police and National Guard used excessive force: a 1968 Time article declared that "With billy clubs, tear gas and Mace, the blue-shirted, blue-helmeted cops violated the civil rights of countless innocent citizens and contravened every accepted code of professional police discipline ... No one could accuse the Chicago cops of discrimination. They savagely attacked hippies, yippies, New Leftists, revolutionaries, dissident Democrats, newsmen, photographers, passers-by, clergymen and at least one cripple. Winston Churchill's journalist grandson got roughed up. Playboy's Hugh Hefner took a whack on the backside. The police even victimized a member of the British Parliament, Mrs. Anne Kerr, a vacationing Laborite who was Maced outside the Conrad Hilton and hustled off to the lockup.[3] In 1968, Jo Freeman wrote, "Over three dozen newsmen were injured in their attempts to cover the action."[4]
In trying to explain his decision to quell the protests, Daley uttered one of the most famous malapropisms of the era: "The policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder."[5]
This hard line was also seen on the convention floor itself. In 1968, Terry Southern described the convention hall as "exactly like approaching a military installation; barbed-wire, checkpoints, the whole bit".[6] Inside the convention, journalists such as Mike Wallace and Dan Rather were roughed up by security; both these events were broadcast live on television. When Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn) delivered a speech nominating George McGovern for President, he infuriated Daley by saying, "with George McGovern as President of the United States, we wouldn't have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago."[7] Daley responded by shaking his fist at Ribicoff, and shouting a phrase that was inaudible, and which has generated much speculation. An uncredited author for CNN wrote, "Most reports of the event also say Daley yelled an off-color epithet beginning with an "F," but according to CNN executive producer Jack Smith, others close to Daley insist he shouted 'Faker,' meaning Ribicoff was not a man of his word, the lowest name one can be called in Chicago's Irish politics."[8]
[edit] The Chicago Seven
Eight of the protesters, including Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Dave Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, and Lee Weiner were charged with conspiracy in connection with the violence at the convention. They were known collectively as the "Chicago Eight" and later became the "Chicago Seven" after a mistrial was declared in the case of Bobby Seale.
On February 18, 1970, all seven defendants were acquitted on the charge of conspiring to incite a riot, but five were convicted of individually inciting riot. The charges were eventually dismissed by an appeals court. The Walker Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence pinned the blame for the violence in the streets on the police, calling it a "police riot".
[edit] Lyndon B. Johnson
One person who did not attend the convention was President Lyndon Johnson, who several months earlier had announced that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination for the presidency.
On August 27, the second day of the convention, he turned 60. Delegates at the convention were hoping to see him so that they could celebrate his 60th birthday with him. Instead, he celebrated it privately with his family at his ranch in Texas, possibly to avoid the violence at the convention. [citation needed]
[edit] Convention in popular culture
- Aretha Franklin performed the National Anthem to open the convention on August 26 -- and forgot the words. [verification needed]
- The 1969 film Medium Cool, although centered on a fictional story and employing actors in the principal roles, includes a substantial amount of footage of the riots, filmed during the convention.
- Graham Nash wrote Chicago, which is about both the convention and the Chicago Eight trial that subsequently took place.[9]
- Phil Ochs was present at the demonstrations, and he talks of his experiences during his concert There and Now: Live in Vancouver 1968, which includes the song "Where Were You In Chicago?"
- Gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson also recounts his experiences of the riots in his book Kingdom of Fear.
- Norman Mailer's book Miami and the Siege of Chicago was about the 1968 convention.
- Bassist Charlie Haden was inspired to write his 1969 song "Circus '68 '69" after watching the convention on television. The piece reflects the incident which happened after the minority plank on Vietnam was defeated. After the vote on the convention floor, the California and New York delegations spontaneously began singing "We Shall Overcome" in protest. In an effort to regain control, the rostrum told the convention orchestra to begin playing to drown out the singing; Haden emulated this by orchestrating his group to play both songs at once; see the notes of Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra for more information.
- The band Chicago Transit Authority (later Chicago) wrote a song on the events of the 1968 Democratic Convention. The 10th track of their debut self-titled album is called "Prologue, August 29, 1968." This song, written by the band's producer, James William Guercio, samples the chant "The Whole World Is Watching," which became famous during the convention riots. The next track was titled "Someday (August 29, 1968)." It is written by James Pankow, the band's trombonist, and Robert Lamm, their keyboardist/vocalist.
- In November, 1968, Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys released "What I Did Last Summer" on their first album, The Street Giveth...And The Street Taketh Away (co-produced by Jimi Hendrix). The chorus starts "Did you go to Chicago?/Did you see what they did there?"[3]
| Preceded by 1964 |
Democratic National Conventions | Succeeded by 1972 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/whouse/convention-ra.html#1968
- ^ Associated Press (Chicago), "Keynoter Knows Sting of Bias, Poverty". St. Petersburg Times, August 27, 1968.
- ^ The Street Giveth...and the Street Taketh Away, (1969), Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys, notes from: Cover. Polydor, USA: 24-4001.
[edit] External links
- Conventions: The Land Around Us at Google Video: Film Documentary with lots of footage of both the Democrats' Convention and the protests
- Video clips of confrontations between demonstrators and police (RealMedia).
- Yippie-produced documentary on the Convention (RealMedia).
- Dementia in the Second City, from Time, Sep 6, 1968
- The Chicago Convention: A Baptism Called A Burial, by Jo Freeman {1968)
- Chicago 1968: The Whole World Is Watching by Janet Heetner; includes photos, documents, news clippings
- Chicago '68 by Alvin Susumu Tokunow (1968)
- Chicago '68 by James P. Turner
- Chicago '68: A Chronology
- Chicago '68: An Introduction, by Dean Blobaum (2000)
- American Experience: Chicago 1968
- Retrospective on the 1968 Democratic Convention, from NewsHour.
- History Files: Parades, Protests and Politics
- Grooving in Chi, 1968 Esquire article by Terry Southern
- Photos of the convention, by Paul Sequeira
- Brief History of Chicago's 1969 Democratic Convention from Allhistory, CNN and Time.
- 1968, August: Disturbances at the Democratic National Convention from the Chicago Public Library
- Whole World Watching, by John Calloway
