The 1968 Democratic Convention
1968
Part 2 of 2
The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Illinois, was marked by violent protests and party upheaval as Herbert Humphrey clinched the presidential nomination.
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Infighting on the Convention Floor
On Monday, August 26, the 1968 Democratic National Convention officially opened at the International Amphitheatre. Television cameras captured everything happening on the convention floor but were unable to live broadcast the demonstrations happening outside.
Whether the news blackout was due to the electrical workers’ strike (as Mayor Daley claimed) or a deliberate attempt to prevent the public from learning about the citywide protests is unclear.
Several states including
Texas,
North Carolina,
Georgia,
Mississippi and
Alabamahad multiple slates of delegates competing to be seated at the convention. Many took the battle to the convention floor. A racially diverse delegation from Texas was defeated.
The convention soon became a battleground between anti-war supporters and Vice President Humphrey’s—and indirectly, President Johnson’s—supporters. On Tuesday night, when a promised televised prime-time debate on Vietnam was postponed until after midnight when most viewers would be asleep, the anti-war delegates made their fury known to the point that Mayor Daley had the convention adjourned for the night.
National Guard Called Up
By Tuesday evening, protestors had gathered at the Conrad Hilton Hotel where many of the delegates and candidates, including Humphrey and McCarthy, stayed. As tense police officers tried to maintain control, Mayor Daley sent in the National Guard to help.
Protest leader Tom Hayden united the crowd by proclaiming, “Tomorrow is the day that this operation has been pointing for some time. We are going to gather here. We are going to make our way to the Amphitheatre by any means necessary.”
On Wednesday, August 28, the
promised televised Vietnam debate finally took place to determine if the Democrats would adopt a plank of peace or one of continued war. At the same time, MOBE convened their long-planned and highly anticipated anti-war rally at the bandshell at Grant Park.
Up to fifteen thousand protestors gathered, much less than protest leaders had hoped for, and they were quickly surrounded by hundreds of police and National Guardsmen under orders to keep the protestors from reaching the Amphitheatre.
Around 3:30 p.m. that afternoon, a teenage boy climbed a flagpole near the bandshell and lowered the American flag. The police moved in swiftly to arrest him as protestors rallied to his aid, assaulting the officers with rocks and food or whatever else they had on hand.
Hoping to quell further violence, Davis reminded police that a legal protest permit had been obtained and requested that all police leave the park. In response, the officers moved in and beat Davis unconscious.
The police beat protestors at will with clubs and fists. Despite the hostility, anti-violence protest leader David Dillinger still supported protesting peacefully. But all bets were off for Hayden, who feared mass arrests and worsening violence. He encouraged protestors to make for the streets in small groups and head back to the Hilton Hotel.
Peace Plank Defeated
As things heated up in Grant Park, they also heated up on the convention floor. The peace plank was defeated, a huge blow to the peace delegates and millions of Americans who wanted the Vietnam War to end, and the delegates erupted into chaos.
In the words of one delegate, “We were desolate. All of the work that we had done, all of the effort we had made had, it seemed to us, come to naught…our hearts were broken.”
By nightfall, a standoff had ensued in front of the Hilton between thousands of angry protestors and thousands of police officers. No one knows who or what triggered the first blow, but soon police began clearing out the crowd, pummeling protestors (and innocent bystanders) with billy clubs and using so much tear gas that it reportedly reached Humphrey some 25 floors up as he watched the bedlam unfold from his hotel room window.
At home in their living rooms, horrified Americans alternated between watching images of police brutally beating young, blood-splattered demonstrators and Humphrey’s nomination. During the nomination process, some delegates spoke to the violence. One pro-McGovern delegate went so far as to refer to the police violence as “Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago.”
Late that evening, Humphrey won the presidential nomination with Senator Edmund Muskie of
Maine as his running mate. But the win was nothing to celebrate. Any illusion of unity within the Democratic Party was shattered—after Humphrey’s nomination, many anti-war delegates joined protesters in solidarity and held a candlelight vigil.
The next day, the remaining protesters and hundreds of anti-war delegates attempted to reach the Amphitheatre again but were deterred with tear gas. At midnight on August 29, the bloody and contentious 1968 Democratic Convention officially ended.
Chicago Seven
Over 650 protesters were arrested during the convention. The total number of injured protesters is unknown but over 100 were treated at area hospitals. It was reported that 192 police officers were injured and 49 required medical treatment.
Davis, Dellinger, Hayden,
Black Pantheractivist
Bobby Seale and four other protest organizers, known as the Chicago Eight, were charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot and brought to trial. After Seale complained about being denied his right to choose his own lawyer, the judge ordered him to appear before the jury each day bound, gagged and chained to a chair.
Seale was removed from the Chicago Eight case and ordered to stand trial separately, making the defendants into the
Chicago Seven. Seale was sentenced to four years for contempt of court, but the charges were later overturned.
After a lengthy, often circus-like trial, the jury found the Chicago Seven not guilty of conspiracy. Five defendants, however, were found guilty of inciting a riot. All convictions were eventually overturned on appeal.
The pandemonium at the 1968 Democratic National Convention did little to stop the Vietnam War or win the 1968 presidential election. By the end of the year, Republican
Richard M. Nixon was President-elect of the United States and 16,592 American soldiers had been killed in Vietnam, the most of any year since the war began.
The events of the convention forced the Democratic Party to take a hard look at how they did business and how they could regain the public’s trust.
READ MORE:
7 Reasons Why the Chicago 8 Trial Mattered
Sources
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Chicago ’68: A Chronology.
Chicago 68.
An Excerpt From: Rights in Conflict: The violent confrontation of demonstrators and police in the parks and streets of Chicago during the week of the Democratic National Convention of 1968.
Chicago 68.
A Look Back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
MSNBC.
Brief History of 1968’s Democratic National Convention.
CNN All Politics.
‘Police Riot’ at the Democratic National Convention.
World History Project.
Riots Erupt at the Democratic National Convention.
World History Project.
BY:
HISTORY.COM EDITORS
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Citation Information
Article Title1968 Democratic Convention
Author
History.com Editors
Website NameHISTORY
URL
1968 Democratic Convention - Protests, Yippies, Witnesses| HISTORY
Date AccessedMarch 29, 2024
PublisherA&E Television Networks
Last UpdatedNovember 10, 2020
Original Published DateMarch 16, 2018
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