1968
Democratic Convention Besieged by Protesters
As the Democratic National Convention gets
underway in Chicago, thousands of antiwar demonstrators take to Chicago’s
streets to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic
presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. During the four-day
convention, the most violent in U.S. history, police and National Guardsmen
clashed with protesters outside the International Amphitheater, and hundreds of
people, including innocent bystanders, were beaten by the Chicago police. The
violence even spilled into the convention hall, as guards roughed up delegates
and members of the press, including CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace, who
was punched in the face. On August 29, Humphrey secured the nomination and the
convention ended.
In the convention’s aftermath, a federal
commission investigating the convention described one of the confrontations as
a “police riot” and blamed Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for inciting his police
to violence. Nevertheless, eight political radicals–the so-called “Chicago
Eight”–were arrested on charges of conspiring to incite the violence, and in
1969 their trial began in Chicago, sparking new waves of protests in the city.