The Windy City — home of the deep dish pizza, historic architecture and the iconic ivy-covered Wrigley Field. For decades it was the premier city for presidential nominating conventions for Republicans and Democrats alike.
But when you look back at the Democratic National Convention in 1968, it takes you back to a time of national turmoil, political uncertainty and war. John Schmidt saw it all firsthand as a 25-year-old lawyer working for Eugene McCarthy's campaign. The violence and volatility outside spilled into the streets downtown, and became the overall backdrop of the DNC, and the chaos that ensued after then-President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.
"One of my colleagues said, 'I think this place is going to blow up,'" Schmidt said. "There was nothing like '68 where right on the floor of the convention you had, like, warring factions."
The war was becoming less and less popular. President Johnson increased the number of American troops in Southeast Asia and by 1968, more than half a million troops were serving in Vietnam.
President Johnson also doubled the monthly quotas for the draft.
Anti-war protesters who for the most part were young students and people of color gathered in Chicago that August and clashed with police, in altercations that quickly turned violent and spanned over the course of the convention.
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The mayor of Chicago ordered the police department to work 12-hour shifts and requested the help of thousands of National Guardsmen to combat the protesters.
The violence hit a peak on Wednesday night, Aug. 28, with the infamous battle of Michigan Avenue.
"I can vividly remember the smell of tear gas on the street and into the lobby of the Hilton," Schmidt said.
That was when around 5,000 protesters gathered around what was then known as the Conrad Hilton Hotel, which served as the Democratic Party's headquarters during the convention.
"This is pre-video cameras, so people didn't have video phones or anything. People crowded around the TV monitors and you could see the scenes of the police attacking the demonstrators," Schmidt recalled.
In the Tribune the next morning, it was referred to as "a bloody battleground."
"The unfortunate thing is, that played over, I think, into the November election, because Nixon ran as a person who could get control. The Democratic Party did not look like it was in control of itself or could get control of anything," he said.
The anti-war movement and the protests at the DNC in 1968 introduced us to the Chicago Eight — they were the first to be indicted for conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot.
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