Highlights
For five days in August, the nation's Democrats assembled in Chicago to nominate a presidential candidate at a convention that would quickly spiral out of control and reflect the domestic chaos of the Vietnam era. Between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators were arrayed against 12,000 police and 6,000 National Guard troops, with an international press contingent of more than 1,000 on hand to record events inside the International Amphitheatre and outside at locations from Lincoln Park to Grant Park. Chants of "the whole world is watching" were broadcast as hippies, Yippies and the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (Mobe) clashed with police at dozens of locations. The climax came W...
For five days in August, the nation's Democrats assembled in Chicago to nominate a presidential candidate at a convention that would quickly spiral out of control and reflect the domestic chaos of the Vietnam era. Between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators were arrayed against 12,000 police and 6,000 National Guard troops, with an international press contingent of more than 1,000 on hand to record events inside the International Amphitheatre and outside at locations from Lincoln Park to Grant Park. Chants of "the whole world is watching" were broadcast as hippies, Yippies and the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (Mobe) clashed with police at dozens of locations. The climax came Wednesday night, as a melee broke out near the Conrad Hilton Hotel across from Grant Park, and police began beating bystanders as well as protesters, using clubs, fists, knees and Mace. Some militants fought back with their own caustic sprays, bottles and concrete chunks, enraging police all the more. Officers pushed people through a plate-glass window and then, according to witnesses, attacked the dazed victims as they lay amid broken glass. A group of police cheered a soldier as he bashed a demonstrator and attacked a photographer who filmed the scene. About an hour later, film of the violence was shown at the Amphitheatre, with the effect of a thunderbolt. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, at the podium to place Sen. George McGovern's name in nomination, decried the use of "Gestapo tactics." A livid Mayor Daley stood up as TV cameras zoomed in but what he shouted has never been precisely determined. Later that night, as the riots continued, Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota easily won the nomination. There were hundreds of injuries, but no deaths. A national inquiry chaired by Chicago Crime Commission director Daniel Walker, later elected governor of Illinois, called the confrontations a "police riot." The city's version, called "What Trees Do They Plant?" blamed the disturbances on extremists and provocateurs. The tumult led to the infamous Chicago 8 trial, later the Chicago 7 trial, in which organizers were charged in federal indictments with rioting and conspiring to riot. They were: Bobby Seale, head of the Black Panthers; Tom Hayden, co-founder of SDS; Dennis Roberts, an Oakland-based civil rights lawyer; Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, founders of the Youth International Party, or Yippies; veteran pacifist and Mobe leader David Dellinger; and academics Lee Weiner and John Froines.
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Daley reins in radicals — the Chicago Way
Turn on the TV news when John McCain is picking up undecided voters by invoking Barack Obama's relationship with unrepentant American terrorist William Ayers and, invariably, some liberal talking head will sniff in disgust and say Ayers is no big deal...Tags: Weather Underground, Interior Policy, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Richard J. Daley
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'Stories Done: Writings on the 1960s and Its Discontents' by Mikal Gilmore
The revolution -- the one that took place in the 1960s -- was in fact televised. The music, the antiwar movement, the drug culture and the social upheaval of the era became major benefactors of the first wave of saturation media coverage. To the...Tags: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, George Harrison, Timothy Leary, Culture
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New Season Of 'Celebrity Rehab'; Weird Sitcom 'Living With The Wolfman'
It would seem to be the most inexcusably invasive of the celebrity stalking shows, where once-familiar faces are now ravaged and at their worst, for our entertainment. And certainly the roster for the second season of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew"...Tags: Celebrity Mothers, Television, Jeff Conaway, Rod Stewart, Shaun Ellis
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Clinton's 'briar patch' scenario
The Swampby Jim Tankersley At the end of a rally in Oregon last month, during a question-and-answer session with the candidate, a woman asked Barack Obama about his campaign's battle with Hillary Clinton's over how to count delegates from two disputed......Tags: John McCain, Florida, Elections, Michigan, Oregon
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How not to sound like a tourist
RedEyeHere are a few things about Chicago you should familiarize yourself with: - For many of you Gen Y-ers, Mayor Daley's been in office almost as long as you've been alive. But his dad, Richard J. Daley, also served as mayor from 1955 to 1976. - The...Tags: Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley, Millennium Park, Super Bowl, Democratic National Conventions
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BEST OF SPIN CYCLE
11:13 p.m. - You could see how Bill Clinton won the presidency twice and John Kerry lost it once. Clinton was the old pro with the strong moves who could time the cheers with the lines. But in 2004 Kerry gave a nomination speech that even people who voted...Tags: John McCain, John Kerry, Weather Underground, Elections, Bill Clinton
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Politics and football share one common bond: Dynasties
Sentinel Staff WriterAmericans pride themselves on their democracy. None other than George Washington helped set that tone. He relinquished the presidency voluntarily and peacefully after eight years in office, creating an important example for future leaders to follow....Tags: San Francisco 49ers, Executive Branch, Bob Griese, Major League Baseball, New York Giants
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McCain: Remember the 60s!!!
Spin CycleIn response to Obama's nomination, McCain's campaign blasts out an item from its official blogger, Michael Goldfarb, reminding everyone that 40 years ago, Bill Ayers, the Chicago professor and ex-Weatherman radical who was a state Senate constituent,...Tags: Weather Underground, Elections, Bill Ayers, Republican Party, Political Candidates
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'Chicago 10' (1968 Democratic Convention conspiracy trial gets animated)
Tribune arts criticThe flashes of heat in our current presidential campaign are mere sparks to the flames of 1968, that pivotal period in the conflagration known as the Sixties. There were years of stoking. Growing rage over Vietnam. A civil rights struggle. A generational...Tags: Allen Ginsberg, Prosecution, Martin Luther King Jr., Riots, Hank Azaria
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When U.S. was at war with itself
Sun Movie Critic(B) "Chicago 10 - 10; History - 7," you may think to yourself as you leave Brett Morgen's skillful documentary depiction of what became known in 1969 as the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. That's not just because most people refer to the group on trial as...Tags: Prosecution, Riots, Hank Azaria, Movies, Nick Nolte
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