Aug 17, 2008 6:45 pm US/Mountain
'68 Convention Was One Of Violence, Change
Good Question: What happened In '68?
DENVER (CBS4) ―
-
-
A scene from the 1968 Democratic National Convention
CBS
-
-
Good Question, a regular part of CBS4 News at 10 p.m., is an opportunity for Alan Gionet to drill past the basic facts of a story and give it some depth & perspective. See more Good Question reports.
A year etched in political lore and human history is 1968. The Tet Offensive, that shook America's resolve in the Vietnam war; incumbent President Lyndon Johnson saying he would not be a candidate for his party's nomination for a second term; the assassination of Martin Luther King and riots in some of the nation's cities; the assassination of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. And then there was what happened at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
As Denver hosts the Democratic National Convention there are some who recall the convention of 40 years ago with dread, others who glamorize what happened and there's even a protest group -- "Recreate '68" that claims to be a grassroots organization of people who feel sold out by the Democratic Party.
Former Colorado Sen. Polly Baca was in Chicago in '68. This year, she's a delegate from Colorado. In 1968 she was invited to go to Chicago that summer after her work for the campaign of Robert Kennedy. In June, Kennedy had been shot and killed in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Baca was nearby when it happened.
Baca went to Chicago when invited. She was not a delegate and joined a loosely organized group supporting the drafting of Edward Kennedy. That didn't work out. She says what was shoved to the back of history texts is that Mississippi Freedom Democrats won the right to be seated in 1968. When that happened, Georgia's segregationist delegation walked out. A success over racist politics of the past. But it was hardly the only historic event of note.
"First of all during that spring and summer we have two major assassinations. By the time the convention rolls around the democrats are going into the convention with an enormous amount of division within the party," said University of Denver Associate Professor of History Susan Schulten.
After Kennedy's assassination, the doors were thrown open for the nomination of Lyndon Johnson's vice president Hubert Humphrey.
"Humphrey has the support of course of the Johnson Administration, but for that reason he's enormously controversial to anyone who opposes the Vietnam War ... So from the outset there's absolutely no unity in the party. And it devolves from there into chaos," Schulten said.
The war was the core issue for many protesters who went to Chicago. But the issue of civil rights loomed large as well -- among others.
"Within the protesters you have everything you can imagine. People who are there solely to peacefully protest the war all the way to people like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman who deliberately came to undermine the Democrats."
Hoffman and Rubin were ultimately part of the "Chicago Seven" tried for their role in the protests in a very public trial that is widely considered a circus. All seven were found guilty of contempt of court, five of inciting a riot. All convictions were later overturned.
Many protest groups had been denied permits by Chicago's mayor Richard Daley. There was intent on challenging that. Baca became part of their cause.
"So I saw this march of ... people marching against the war in Vietnam and of course my heart was with them. I was opposed to the war as well. So I joined the march."
She said there was euphoria among those protesting the war.
"It was just a sense of joy and celebration that slipped over the crowd ... It was a celebration of having our voice heard."
When they reached the convention, she stepped out to head upstairs in a hotel where she believed she could watch coverage on television. But by the time she reached the second floor things in the streets were deteriorating.
"I looked down on the crowd that I had been in only minutes before. And at the far right end at the end of the block I saw these policemen in military formation and as they approached that crowd they picked up speed and they started running into that crowd with their nightsticks swinging. It was awful. I just, I couldn't believe that this was happening in our country. I broke down and started crying, I could not believe what I was seeing."
Some protesters submitted, others responded violently. Amazingly, no one was killed.
"It was a police riot, it was a police riot and the demonstrators reacted to that police riot. There would have never been the chaos that occurred had it not been for that police riot."
Who was responsible? Certainly there was enough blame to go around.
"I think there are a thousand stories to answer that. If you look at the numbers, estimates are there were probably about 5,000 protesters. You have about 12,000 police that Daly had put on the streets and another 5,000 to 10,000 in National Guard and Army," said Shulten. "But the consensus really is -- and this is confirmed by a report in the aftermath of Chicago -- that the police riot was really the story that was going on -- that the police were really looking for a fight."
Mayor Daley was criticized by party members, including one who accused him of "Gestapo tactics" in the streets.
Humphrey eventually lost the final election to Republican Richard Nixon in 1968.
"And it affirms in people's minds I think the sense that the Democratic Party is imploding -- that it's an organization that is incoherent, that it can't contain itself," Shulten said. "Most historians have come to the conclusion that '68 really does fuel the rise of a conservative revolution."
Baca believes the lesson was one of tolerance.
"We learned that the young can make a difference. That if the young are passionate, that if they are peaceful and non-violent, that they do impact, that was number one; but number two we learned that we ought not to be afraid of peaceful demonstration."
Additional Resources • For complete coverage of the planning for the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, as well as information about how to volunteer and for a list of helpful links, visit the
Democratic National Convention section.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Section: Democratic National Convention Section 
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
1 Of World's Strongest Men From Colorado
Slideshow: Colorado's Weirdest House
Stumble It!
Reporting
