A look back at the 1968 Democratic Convention

One of the most enduring images of the year 1968 was the violent attack on antiwar demonstrators during the Democratic Party's presidential nominating conven­tion held in Chicago in late August. Chicago had a long established reputation as a city wracked by political corruption, Mob control, and a racist and violent police force. The city acquired an even more frightening reputation after then-Mayor Richard J. Daley called on his police to "shoot to kill" rioters following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April. Daley mobilized the vast resources of the city to intimidate antiwar and antiracist activists who planned on demonstrating at the Democratic Convention.

In the end, Daley's police engaged in violent attacks on supporters of liberal Democrat Senator Eugene McCarthy, the media, peaceful demonstrators, and bystanders. His actions were denounced as "Gestapo tactics" from the podium of the Democratic Convention. Many young people, who witnessed the violent suppression of liberal reform in Czechoslovakia by Russian Warsaw Pact tanks just a few weeks earlier, saw an eerie similarity in the political events in both countries.

Mayor Richard J. Daley delivered Illinois to gift JFK the presidency in typical Cook County corruption, defeating "Tricky" Dick Nixon in 1960.

'Sapere aude'