When Chaos Came to Chicago: An Oral History of the 1968 Convention Riots

It was August 1968, and Chicago was ready to combust. The Democratic National Convention had come to town, along with thousands of delegates, guests and journalists. Demonstrators arrived in the city ready for battle, protesting the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, which by then had killed more than 25,000 Americans. Mayor Richard J. Daley, who had seen the West Side of his city burn months earlier after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., was determined to protect the city’s residents from more unrest — and crack down on protesters who were furious at the war, the draft and the deaths of their peers.

And he did. Over several days, protesters and the police clashed on the streets in rioting that was captured on national television. Authorities used tear gas, called in the National Guard and arrested hundreds of demonstrators, often with brutal force.

There are some unmistakable parallels between that convention and the one beginning on Monday in Chicago: an overseas conflict stirring disapproval at home, a wave of campus demonstrations and a new Democratic presidential nominee taking the stage.

But the comparisons end there, many people who remember 1968 said. The turmoil and tension leading into the 1968 convention in Chicago were far different from this year’s, which is now characterized by Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign of optimism. Police officers have been trained to protect protesters’ First Amendment rights and to de-escalate situations — and the current mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, who has joined labor protests in the past, is part of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Still, the chaos of 1968 remains vivid. Here are recollections of what happened, as told by the activists, journalists, police officers and other observers who lived it. Some comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.

At the outset, a brewing tension

The weekend before the convention, protesters from various groups — the Yippies, a militant activist group led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin; the Young Lords; and others — were already gathering in parks downtown and skirmishing with police officers.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

“There was the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy in June, the Vietnam War, police intrusion and the growing disenfranchisement felt by many Americans, especially the African American community. These events heightened emotions and created a sense of unrest in the air. People were on edge.”

William M. Daley, a son of then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was 20 years old at the time and accompanied his father around the city.

“It was one of the most challenging years in the history of the country. Everybody played their part: the demonstrators, the police, my dad. You had a weekend of violence and people throwing stink bombs in hotel lobbies. You had police chasing demonstrators around Lincoln Park. You had this crazy stuff going on. In addition to the madness of thousands of people coming to Chicago to demonstrate, there was a rumor that they were going to put LSD in the water supply. We laugh at that today, but in the context of ’68, it wasn’t crazy. The cops had had enough.”

Andrew Davis, the director of the film “The Fugitive,” was at the convention as an assistant cameraman for the movie “Medium Cool,” which used real footage of the convention.

“It was the height of the antiwar movement; people were frustrated. The kids felt that they had nothing to lose, and there was also a sense of theater. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were running a pig for president. They were making fun of people.”

Don Rose, spokesman, National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam

“There was a lot of nervousness. We had planned a number of protests. It was supposed to be beyond the war and hit civil rights and other issues. But most of the feeling was about the war and the draft.”

Michael Klonsky, national secretary, Students for a Democratic Society

“We felt the real change in the war and civil rights would not come from the top. We weren’t so much invested in the Democratic victory over Richard Nixon. Most of the young activists in our organization were tired of the war, opposed to the draft, and they were not going to vote for the war party, which is what the Democrats were then, and to a large degree are now. We followed what was going on with the debate inside the convention, but what we wanted to do was impact that debate from the streets.”

Clashes between police and protesters

Inside the convention hall, Democrats nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey over Senator Eugene McCarthy, 1,761 votes to 601. The fury from demonstrators was palpable outside; at night, many protesters tried to stay in the city’s parks to sleep, sparking conflict with the police.

Bob Angone, Chicago police officer

“Most of them were sleeping in the parks, but then goofy Daley said that the wonderful people of Chicago can’t sleep in the parks, and the hippies and the yippies won’t either.”

Klonsky

“Once they tried to run us out of the parks and things got nasty, there was no backing down. There was no way out.”

Tom Faragoi, Chicago police officer

“They were throwing bags of human feces and everything else at us. I fractured my arm because someone threw a piece of concrete at me. But I kept on working. We had a line of police standing shoulder to shoulder. They started throwing bottles at us; it really got bad. If a cop tells you he wasn’t scared, he is lying. We were all scared.”

Jackson

“I didn’t participate in the protests directly, but I witnessed the escalating tension between the police and the crowds. It was a surreal experience, watching as the city I knew so well was transformed into a battleground. The whole event felt like a pivotal moment, not just for Chicago but for the country.”

Bedlam on Michigan Avenue

On Wednesday night, the third night of the convention, the most intense confrontation of the week between protesters and the police and National Guard troops erupted on Michigan Avenue, outside the hotel then known as the Conrad Hilton. The police beat demonstrators with billy clubs and unleashed tear gas on the crowd. An official report concluded that the police acted with “unrestrained and indiscriminate” violence.

Rose

“That’s when the so-called Battle of Michigan Avenue started taking place. There were people rushing from all directions, some trying to escape, some who were just coming to that location, not knowing what they might find. And the battle was in full sway for several hours.

I managed to escape and went to my office, and it had been converted into an infirmary.”

Faragoi

“Daley was a law-and-order guy, and we agreed with him. They could have stayed if they didn’t cause so much trouble. If it was a peaceful demonstration, they had the right to assemble. But they were really bad. It was a riot by the protesters, not the police. We didn’t riot. We were assaulted.”

Klonsky

“I don’t think there was one thing that provoked it. It wasn’t just the cops’ fault; they were being told from the top down to go out there and teach us a lesson. I think they wanted to show Republican voters that the Democrats were law-and-order people too. Daley especially, who was being attacked inside the convention for allowing this disorder to happen.

It was the politics of the time. It meant that every protest had to be met with a show of force.”

Angone

“We didn’t care about any of that, the Democrats or the Republicans. We just cared about the city. They were trying to wreck things, they were breaking windows, beating up the police, screaming and yelling. That’s what we cared about.”

No retreat

The violence that erupted that week would tarnish Chicago’s reputation for decades, though Mayor Daley maintained tight control of the city until his death eight years later. For many Americans, the unrest during the convention diminished faith in the Democratic Party to preserve order in the nation. That November, the country elected Mr. Nixon president over Mr. Humphrey. But the antiwar movement continued to grow.

Judy Gumbo, a founding member of the Yippies

“The sight of the cops coming into Grant Park with their batons, slapping them against their sides and marching in, really roughing people up, doing terrible stuff to people, was an amazing sight. It was scary, but I don’t remember the scary as much as I remember the empowerment. The feeling of, ‘We are doing the right thing.’”

William M. Daley

“My dad was the defender of the system; he was the mayor. It was his job to keep order and control of the city. Nobody was killed, and there were no riots in the neighborhoods, which was his big concern. He was worried there would be a replication of what happened after Martin Luther King died.”

Klonsky

“The protest in ’68 really helped sway public opinion on the war movement and the draft. It ushered in a new era of social and political activism.”