August 28, 1968: The Democratic National Convention is in progress, held at the International Amphitheatre, at 4200 South Halsted Street on the South Side of Chicago. Anger over the Party's role in the Vietnam War has led to the incumbent President, Lyndon B. Johnson, dropping out of the race for what would have amounted to a 2nd full term. At this point, LBJ couldn't even attend the Convention -- and a celebration planned for August 27, his 60th birthday, had to be canceled.
Given the way things were set up at the time, with Primaries not yet having the influence they would have -- the 1968 nomination process would lead the Democratic Party to change the process for 1972 and thereafter -- once LBJ dropped out, the nominee was always going to be the Vice President, Hubert Humphrey.
It was not going to be Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, brother of John F. Kennedy, the President whose assassination in 1963 led to the rise of LBJ from Vice President to President. RFK had won key Primaries, but Johnson, no longer a candidate but still the leader of the Party, controlled the Delegates. RFK was shot and killed mere minutes after claiming victory in the California Primary, but even if he had lived, the chances of his winning the nomination over Humphrey were not good.
It was not going to be Senator Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin: He was a single-issue candidate, and once Bobby Kennedy got into the race, he became "the peace candidate," and McCarthy was finished.
With RFK dead, and McCarthy only running half-heartedly thereafter, there was no real challenge to Humphrey. And people who wanted the war over were furious. They demonstrated in Chicago's Grant Park, which the main hotel for Convention Delegates, the Conrad Hilton Hotel (now the Hilton Chicago), overlooked.
And, egged on by agitators Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin -- who were more interested in making trouble than making peace -- the demonstrators challenged the Chicago Police. The Police charged, and there was a riot. It became known as "the New Battle of the Midway" and "the Melee on Michigan Avenue."
The cops wore short-sleeved blue shirts (understandable due to the heat) and blue helmets (understandable due to the need for protection). They swung their nightsticks freely, and even poked demonstrators in the stomach.
Borrowing a line from Bob Dylan's song "When the Ship Comes In," demonstrators chanted, "The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!" And TV cameras were, indeed, getting the whole picture: The police were seen as the aggressors -- although half of the viewing audience thought them justified.
The Number 1 song in America was "People Got to Be Free" by The Rascals. But the people in power didn't seem to be listening.
Mayor Richard J. Daley, the Convention's host and the cops' boss, was as much a part of the Democratic Party establishment as anyone. The year before, he had been elected to a 4th term as Mayor of what was still the nation's 2nd-largest city. (It would be the early 1980s before its "white flight"-led population decline allowed Los Angeles to surpass it.) And, with RFK dead, he was probably now the most famous Irish, and the most famous Catholic, politician in America. He was 66 years old, and looked even older due to his receding hairline, heavy jowls and fat physique.
At a press conference to address the violence, he came up with one of the all-time great malaprops/Freudian slips: "Gentlemen, let's get something straight, for once and for all: The policeman is not there to create disorder. The policeman is there to preserve disorder."
When the nominating speeches were given for the candidates, Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, who had previously been Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare under President John F. Kennedy, rose to nominate Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, in the faint hope of uniting RFK and McCarthy supporters behind a peace candidate.
He knew what was happening outside, and he knew that Daley knew what was happening outside. Being Jewish, Ribicoff decided to, as would be said in later years, "go there": He said, "With George McGovern as President, we wouldn't have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago!"
Half the Amphitheatre cheered. The other half booed. A camera was put on Daley, and people who could read lips thought he yelled at Ribicoff: "You Jew fucker!" Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, a Daley ally, told an interviewer in 1998, on the 30th Anniversary, that Daley had actually called him, "You faker," explaining that "faker" was a frequent insult of Daley's.
Whatever Daley said, anti-Semitic or not, Ribicoff did not back down. He stared at Daley, nodded a couple of times, and said, "How hard it is, how hard it is to accept the truth!"
Neither man served in World War II: Daley was the Minority Leader of the Illinois State Senate, while Ribicoff was a judge in Hartford. Regardless, at that moment, Ribicoff was tougher than Daley.
Humphrey won the nomination easily. The next night, he addressed the violence and the anger, inside the hall and out, in his acceptance speech:
This moment, this moment is one of personal pride and gratification. Yet one cannot help but reflect the deep sadness that we feel over the troubles and the violence which have erupted, regrettably and tragically, in the streets of this great city, and for the personal injuries which have occurred.
Surely we have now learned the lesson that violence breeds counterviolence, and it cannot be condoned, whatever the source.
I know that every Delegate to this Convention shares tonight my sorrow and my distress over these incidents. And for just one moment, in sober reflection and serious purpose, may we just quietly and silently, each in our own way, pray for our country.
And may we just share for a moment a few of those immortal words of the prayer of St Francis of Assisi, words which I think may help heal the wounds, ease the pain and lift our hearts. Listen to this immortal saint:
"Where there is hatred, let me know love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light."
Those are the words of a saint. And may those of us of less purity listen to them well and may America tonight resolve that never, never again shall we see what we have seen.
My mother had recently turned 21, and so was voting for President for the first time. My father was voting for the second time. Mom saw this speech, and she told me years later that she thought Humphrey "was on the verge of a nervous breakdown."
In 2008, on the 40th Anniversary, C-SPAN showed the speech in its entirety, and I saw what she meant. "Nervous breakdown" was a bit of a stretch, but Humphrey seemed a beaten man, on the verge of tears, knowing that this nomination, which he had previously tried for halfheartedly at the 1956 Convention and in the 1960 Primaries, was a "poisoned chalice."
At the very least, Humphrey chose a nominee for Vice President who did him no harm, and may even have helped: Senator, and former Governor, Edmund S. Muskie of Maine. Certainly, he looked like a better choice for Vice President that the Republican nominee, Governor Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland.
Other conventions have had Delegates walking out thinking, "We've nominated the wrong guy." There was no right guy available to the Democrats in August 1968.
A week later, former Vice President Richard Nixon, already nominated for President by the Republican Party in Miami Beach on August 8, rode in an open car down Michigan Avenue, and was wildly cheered. Nixon may have been the only person who went to Chicago that Summer and got his reputation enhanced.
Republicans have long blamed Nixon's very close 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy on shenanigans by officials in Chicago. In 1968, events in Chicago made Nixon the 37th President of the United States.
Under Johnson, the U.S. Department of Justice made no effort to prosecute anyone for crimes committed at the Convention. When Nixon took office the following January 20, with his former campaign manager, John Mitchell, as the U.S. Attorney General, such efforts began. On March 20, eight demonstrators were indicted: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. Seale, a member of the Black Panther Party, eventually had his case separated, and the "Chicago Eight" became a "Chicago Seven."
On February 18, 1970, all defendants were acquitted on the charge of conspiracy, a charge that left Hoffman incredulous: "Conspiracy? We can't even agree on lunch!" On the charge of traveling across State Lines with intent to incite a riot, Froines and Weiner were acquitted, but the others were convicted. They were sentenced to 5 years in prison, but remained free upon appeal. On November 21, 1972, 2 weeks after Nixon was re-elected, the U.S. Court of Appeals threw out their convictions.
My parents each made lists of reasons to vote for Humphrey and reasons to vote for Nixon, and, for each of them, Nixon came out ahead. They both voted for Nixon. Mom told me she regretted it the instant she stepped out of the voting booth. Dad took a little longer to regret it. When the Democrats nominated McGovern to oppose Nixon in 1972, both parents voted for McGovern, for all the good it did.
As of August 28, 2022, my mother is still alive, and has never voted for a Republican for President again. My father died in 2014, and made one exception, for Ronald Reagan in 1984. He would not have voted for Trump.
*
August 28, 1968 was a Wednesday. Scottish actor Billy Boyd was born.
These Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees were actually in Chicago that night, a mile and a half to the northeast, at Comiskey Park. They lost to the Chicago White Sox, 3-0. Rookie lefthander Jerry Nyman got his 1st major league victory, outpitching Mel Stottlemyre. The only Yankee hits were singles by Mickey Mantle, Horace Clarke, and 2 by catcher Frank Fernandez. Nyman would make his last big-league appearance just 2 years later, with a career record of 6-7.
* Back in the Big Apple, the New York Mets hosted a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds at Shea Stadium, and got swept, losing the 1st game 8-3, and losing the 2nd game 5-2. Pete Rose went 2-for-9 over the 2 games. Johnny Bench didn't play in the opener, and went 1-for-4 in the nightcap.
* The Atlanta Braves swept the Philadelphia Phillies in a doubleheader at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Braves won the 1st game 9-2, and the 2nd game 2-1. Hank Aaron went 5-for-8 with a home run and 2 RBIs on the day.
* The Washington Senators beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Frank Howard hit a home run for the Senators. For the Orioles, Frank Robinson went 1-for-4, and Brooks Robinson went 2-for-3 with a walk.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Rookie Reggie Jackson went 1-for-5, and Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a 2-run homer.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Gibson pitched a 4-hit shutout, striking out 14. At the conclusion of this game, his ERA for the season was 1.03. Willie Stargell went 0-for-4, and Roberto Clemente did not play.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Rod Carew went 0-for-3, but got an RBI on a groundout. Harmon Killebrew did not play.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 6-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Denny McLain went the distance, and was now 26-5 with a month to go. His chances of winning 30 games in the season were now very good. Al Kaline did not play.
* In a doubleheader at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Dodgers lost the 1st game to the Chicago Cubs, 7-4, but won the 2nd game, 8-4. Ernie Banks went 2-for-9 with 2 RBIs.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie McCovey hit a home run, and Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
