Historic Highlights: Riots at 1968 DNC rocked Chicago, state

The year 1968 was a tumultuous time in America, rife with assassinations and social upheaval. And politics were often at the center of it.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was a defining moment of that historic year, and remains a seminal episode in the unrest of the decade. The war in Vietnam was the main cause of the riots, though other factors fueled the angst that was broadcast to millions on live TV.

“Norman Mailer, the author, was on target in labeling the convention ‘the siege of Chicago.’ From start to finish, the convention was surreal,” said Taylor Pensoneau of New Berlin, Illinois, who covered the convention as a political writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “However, it was a very ugly surrealism.”

“I watched the violent disruption at the seams of a great American city and witnessed vicious, unimaginable discord I never thought I’d see, and hoped I’d never see again,” he said.

The Democratic National Convention returned to Chicago in 1996 with relatively few issues. But the world was a much different place in 1968.

The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy earlier that year, along with lingering civil rights issues, helped create a tinderbox among activists, who started pouring into Chicago in the days and weeks before the convention.

That April, Chicago police were blasted for their actions in race riots that turned deadly. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whom some believe was second only to President Lyndon Baines Johnson in terms of political power, boldly declared that protesters at the convention would be controlled.

“As long as I am mayor,” Daley said, “there will be law and order in Chicago. Nobody is going to take over this city.”

He eventually established the largest military buildup in an American city since the Civil War. Supplanting the 11,900-man Chicago police force were 7,500 Illinois National Guard troops, and 7,500 riot-trained federal troops.

There were also hundreds of state and county police, a private security force at the convention site, and countless Secret Service agents. The combined forces dwarfed the 10,000 dissidents in town by 5-to-1.

Pensoneau, then 27, arrived in Chicago several days before the convention, as did the Youth International Party, or the “yippies.” That group, led by Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and others, convened near the Civic Center by the famed Picasso sculpture and nominated a 145-pound pig named “Pigasus” for president.

“They’d picked up this pig somewhere on the way to Chicago, and brought it in with a station wagon,” said Pensoneau. “They demanded that the pig be given Secret Service protection, and be included in foreign policy briefings in the White House.”

The police swept the group out and charged them with disorderly conduct. Many were hit with $25 fines. Pigasus, however, did not appear in court.

“I grabbed Rubin by his arm as he was being led away and asked him, ‘Where do you go with the pig,’” laughed Pensoneau. “And he said, ‘If we can’t have the pig in the White House, we’ll have him for breakfast.”

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That was one of the few episodes of laughter created by the dissidents, who were an odd mix. Many supported the candidacy of Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a vocal war opponent.

“Most of the protestors came with peaceful intentions,” Pensoneau said. “But there were radical groups led by the yippies, Students for a Democratic Society, Maoists, known anarchists, and others who bent on creating disruptions. And they succeeded.”

Some possessed marijuana, while others carried North Vietnamese flags. In at least one instance, dissidents attempted to insert a Viet Cong flag in the General Logan statue at Grant Park, one of the centers of the protests.

At both Grant Park and Lincoln Park, protesters and police clashed throughout the week. Meanwhile, the convention opened inside the International Amphitheatre, near the stockyards, on Monday, Aug. 26, which did little to stem the confrontations.

Protesters barricaded themselves inside Lincoln Park, and police used tear gas to disperse them. Reporters and some resident bystanders were attacked during the ensuing exchange.

Pensoneau said he remembers violent clashes throughout the week.

“The protestors would taunt the National Guard and the cops, throwing bottles, cans, clumps of dirt, pieces of concrete, plastic bags of urine, and a lot of other things,” he said. “They continued with insults, like calling the cops ‘pigs,’ and the like.

“The worst rioting was occurring in Grant Park, in the alleys, on streets around the scene,” Pensoneau said. “I just witnessed stuff I never thought I’d see. The police were slamming nightsticks and billy clubs into the shoulders and backs of protestors. Some of the protestors grabbed nightsticks away from the cops and beat them in turn. It was complete bedlam.”

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Two days later, the situation came to a head when the convention delegates voted to defeat a peace plank in the platform. At Grant Park, protesters replaced an American flag near the band shell with a shirt that appeared either red or blood-splattered.

Thousands of protesters then started moving toward the Amphitheatre, many chanting “Peace Now! Peace Now!” Waiting for them were thousands of police, in line shoulder-to-shoulder with nightsticks visible.

The ensuing clash became the signature moment of the week. In a 17-minute confrontation that resembled a massive street riot, hundreds of protesters were beaten, while others were pushed back with tear gas.

The bloody chaos was captured nationally on live television as many in the crowd chanted, “The whole world is watching!”

Tempers also boiled inside the convention hall. In a nomination speech, Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff derided the “Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago.” On the floor, Daley appeared to respond with a profanity.

Pensoneau was just a few feet away from the exchange and is visible in at least one photo taken at the moment.

“I had just interviewed Francis Lorenz, a potent Chicago Democrat in the Daley machine, and was moving on to someone else when Ribicoff made the statement,” he said. “Daley cuffed his mouth with his hands, starting booing. Then all of the Chicago Democrats around him started booing as if Daley had pushed a button.

“Many people have quoted Daley as saying something negative or prejudicial,” Pensoneau said. “I didn’t hear him say that, but I can’t say for sure.” Cameras also filmed numerous squabbles on the floor, and some reporters claimed they were shoved.

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The convention finally closed on Thursday, Aug. 29, and Hubert H. Humphrey, another Minnesota senator, left with the nomination for president. He would lose to Richard Nixon by only 500,000 votes in November.

“Politically, the convention pretty much doomed the candidacy of Humphrey,” Pensoneau said. “It put a monkey on his back that proved almost insurmountable, and provided a political gift to Nixon, giving him a much wider open door to the White House.”

Seven of the protest leaders were tried early the next year and turned courtrooms into circus-like atmospheres with their insolence. But Daley and the Chicago police bore the brunt of the criticism, which haunted both the city and the Democratic Party for years.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.