1968 Democratic National Convention

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Chicago Convention redirects here, for the Convention on International Civil Aviation for the event also referred to by this name.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968, for the purpose 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. in April and Robert F. Kennedy (then a U.S. senator from New York) in June during his campaign for the Democratic nomination, and widespread protests against the Vietnam War. The convention achieved notoriety because of rioting between protesters and police, and 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 Daniel Inouye, a U.S. senator from Hawaii.^[2]

[edit] Nomination

The selection of a Presidential nominee was particularly difficult for the Democrats that year because of the split in the party over the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision not to seek re-election (announced March 31), and Robert Kennedy's assassination (June 6). On one side, Eugene McCarthy, ran a decidedly anti-war campaign, calling for immediate withdrawal from the region. On the other side, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, from Minnesota, who did not participate in any primaries but controlled enough delegates to secure the nomination, called for a policy more in line with President Johnson's, which focused on making any reduction of force contingent on concessions extracted in the Paris Peace Talks.

The Democrats eventually nominated Humphrey, who went on to 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.

Source: Keating Holland, "All the Votes... Really," CNN ^[3]

[edit] Protests and police response

Main article: 1968 Democratic National Convention protests

[edit] The Chicago Seven

Main article: Chicago Seven

Eight of the protesters — Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Jerry Rubin, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale — were charged with conspiracy in connection with the violence at the convention. They were known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; however, Seale was tried separately after a mistrial was declared in his case, thus the smaller group became known as the "Chicago Seven".

On February 18, 1970, all seven defendants were acquitted on the charge of conspiring to incite a riot, but five were convicted of incitement as individuals. However, all of the convictions were eventually overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

[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, Johnson turned 60. Some 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. Later, it was learned that the Secret Service advised him against attending the convention.

[edit] Convention in popular culture

• The 1969 film Medium Cool, directed by Haskell Wexler, although centered on a fictional story and employing actors in the principal roles, includes substantial footage of the riots, filmed during the convention.
• Graham Nash wrote the song "Chicago", recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, which is about both the convention and the Chicago Eight trial that followed a year later.^[4]
• 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 songs "Where Were You In Chicago?" and "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed" which are about the despair felt in the aftermath of the violence against the protestors.
• 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 called 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?"^[5]
• The line, "Blood on the streets in the town of Chicago" from the Doors song Peace Frog is reportedly about this convention.
• Gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson recounts his experiences during the riots in his book Kingdom of Fear.
• Towards the beginning of the film Dazed and Confused, Mrs. Stroud, the history teacher, can be heard recounting that "The '68 democrat convention was probably the most bitchin' time I ever had in my life."
• The band MC5 delivered a legendary 8-hour live set outside the convention at the height of the fury.
• The first of Niven's Laws was inspired by the events of this convention.^[6]
  Law 1 reads, "Never throw shit at an armed man." Its corollary, law 1a, is "Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man."
• The events of the Convention figure heavily in the first portion of Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's novel Illuminatus!. Both had been involved with the riots, a fact that Wilson recounts in his Cosmic Trigger Vol. II.
• In the epilogue for the film Cooley High, it says the character named Tyrone was killed during an outbreak of racial violence at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
• The film Chicago 10 revolves around the convention, as well as the Chicago 8 trial that followed it.
• On an episode of the television show Squidbillies, a regular character, Dan Halen, is shown there and attacking a protester while telling him to "taste the chain" again and again long after he was capable of tasting anything.
• In the book Things Not Seen, Bobby's mother is said to have been pushed around at the 1968 Democratic National Convention by police.
• Chicago: 1968 is a weekly webcomic focusing on the Convention and the events leading up to it, by Len Kody & Jenny Frison

[edit] Further reading

• Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention, by Frank Kusch; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Miami and the Siege of Chicago, by Norman Mailer; New York: New American Library, 1968.
• Chicago '68, by David Farber; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

[edit] See also

• Democratic National Convention
• McGovern-Fraser Commission
• Protests of 1968

[edit] References

[edit] External links

The external links in this article may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate 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
• Brief History of Chicago's 1968 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
• An excerpt from Chicago '68 by David Farber.
• An excerpt from Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention by Frank Kusch.
• Chicago: 1968 is a weekly webcomic focusing on the Convention and the events leading up to it, by Len Kody and Jenny Frison