Chicago Riots and the Democratic National Convention August 1968
When the Republican Party held their nominating convention in Miami the first week of August, the Republican nominee for president, Richard Nixon, included in his acceptance speech the statement that, “…the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented racial violence…” and that the President of the United States “…cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home…” He made clear that his administration would stand in support of law and order, the police, and other legal authorities.
Later that month the Democratic Party gathered in Chicago to nominate a candidate to oppose Nixon. They selected Hubert Humphrey, the sitting vice president. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was determined to make the convention an opportunity to show the world how well the city was run, establishing a heavy police presence outside the convention center and strong party security inside. Daley was intent in presenting party unity inside the hall, and efficient law and order outside. He perceived two organizations as a threat to his goal outside the hall, the newly formed Youth International Party – known as the Yippies – and the National Mobilization Committee to end the War in Vietnam. Both groups planned events to coincide with the convention.
About ten thousand members of the two groups gathered in Chicago despite Daley’s repeated pronouncements that there would be no such gatherings to “…take over our streets, our city, our convention.” Daley had 23,000 Chicago Police, Cook County Sheriff Deputies, and National Guardsmen waiting for the demonstrators. On August 28 demonstrators in Grant Park were confronted by the police, in full view of television cameras. Hubert Humphrey was taking a shower in his hotel room at the Hilton when he was affected by tear gas, so great was the amount used by the police. The confrontation was called a police riot by many observers, and the police activity was condemned inside the convention from the speaker’s dais by Senator Abraham Ribicoff, who referred to the police behavior as Gestapo tactics. Daley responded with an anti-semitic obscenity uttered on national television.
Although the riot was initiated by the police and similar tactics occurred inside the convention on the floor, most of the nation was by the end of August 1968 thoroughly tired of seeing protests and despite the clear evidence of police use of excessive force, the majority of polls taken after the fact placed the blame for the riot on the protesters. A group of eight leaders of the Youth International Party were arrested and charged with conspiracy and inciting to riot. This group became known as the Chicago Eight. Eventually, five were convicted of incitement to riot, none for conspiracy, and all of the convictions were overturned on appeal.
The Walker Report issued by a select team assigned to investigate the riot placed the blame for the violence squarely on the police and National Guard, stating the police actions were “…unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence on many occasions, particularly at night. That violence was made all the more shocking by the fact that it was often inflicted upon persons who had broken no law, disobeyed no order, made no threat.” The aftermath of the Chicago Democratic Convention revealed ever more clearly defined lines dividing the American populace over the direction of the nation and the application of its laws.