This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: August 28, 2008- Forty years later, it is shocking to watch old news footage of the chaos outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968 as Chicago police and National Guard troops armed with tear gas, billyclubs and bayonets confronted unarmed anti-war protesters.
The demonstrators, most of them college-aged, wore long hair, love beads and scruffy jeans and shouted anti-draft slogans like "Hell, no. We won't go" and warned, "The whole world is watching.''
History was watching, also. And St. Louisans will have an opportunity to discuss and reflect on the political and social aspects of the 1968 convention when KETC and the Missouri History Museum kick off the Community Cinema Series on Sept. 11 with a screening of "Chicago 10" by filmmaker Brett Morgen.
The film features an unusual mix of archival footage and animation to explore the run-up to the convention and the raucous trial in 1969 of the "Chicago Eight," the demonstrators charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot. Because cameras weren't allowed in courtrooms in those days, Morgen recreates trial scenes using court transcripts and animation. "Chicago 10" is named for the eight defendants, plus their attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass.
The film should inspire a lively dialogue about political demonstrations, then and now, says Lewis Perry, a professor of history at St. Louis University, who will participate in a panel discussion after the screening.
Perry said that unlike 1968 when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley responded to the threat of disruption by ordering brutal force, today's protests tend to be both "managed and distanced" - limited to designated areas and kept away from convention delegates.
"They are not managed with billyclubs and National Guard troops and bayonets,'' Perry said.
The discussion is made even more relevant because of the widely publicized actions of the Chinese government to limit political protest during the Olympic Games, said Howard Brick, a professor of history at Washington University, who will also be on the "Chicago 10" panel.
Brick said that political protest in the United States can be somewhat suppressed by bureaucratic red tape, such as requiring demonstrators to get permits and stay within roped-off areas. "But let us not lose sight of the fact that no one has been thrown in jail here for just seeking a permit," he said.
Morgen told an interviewer with IndieWire in February that he made "Chicago 10" for a youth audience. "My favorite comment was from one kid who said, 'I feel like I now understand my parents,' '' Morgen said.
The history professors say that while "Chicago 10" may spur comparisons to the 2008 Democratic convention and the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq, times are different. In 1968, the anti-war protesters targeted Democrats because they were the party in office. American casualties in Vietnam had passed 30,000, and the draft was continuing amid growing public sentiment that the war could not be won.
The convention was just one more turbulent moment in a year already rocked by rioting, demonstrations and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy Jr.
Perry finds it odd that groups such as Recreate 68 were urging protesters to descend upon Denver this summer for the Democratic convention.
"Why would anyone want to recreate 1968? It's not like anyone would want to relive it,'' he said.
Perry said the political overtones of this year's Democratic convention are unlike 1968 when there was widespread disillusionment with party bosses who secured the nomination for Hubert Humphrey over anti-war candidates, such as Eugene McCarthy.
"Humphrey seemed like the candidate of the bosses,'' Perry said. "Despite strong feelings about Obama and Hillary, there is not that same sense about these candidates.''
Perry, who had worked for McCarthy, recalls watching the convention on television with his father. He remembers 1968 as a year that began with hope and turned terribly wrong after the assassinations of King and Kennedy.
Perry will bring an interesting personal perspective to the Sept. 22 panel discussion:
He attended Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati with Yippie Jerry Rubin, one of the "Chicago Eight." Rubin, who became known for his radical political views and outrageous behavior, was a clean-cut student who worked for the school newspaper and was voted "busiest" in the class, Perry said. "He was very earnest, a journalist, the son of a Teamsters official, and he was very knowledgeable about sports."
Test your knowledge: The '68 Democratic National Convention
1. Eight anti-war demonstrators stood trial in 1969 for conspiracy and intent to incite a riot at the convention. How many of the "Chicago Eight" can you name?
2. The "Chicago Eight" became the "Chicago Seven" after one of the defendants was severed from the case and found in contempt of court. Who was this defendant; why was he found in contempt?
3. Name the mayor of Chicago in 1968 who ordered his police force to take a hard line against protestors. Name the mayor of Chicago today.
4. At the convention, the Democrats nominated a U.S. senator from Maine for vice president who later served as a U.S. secretary of state. Name the senator. Which president appointed him secretary of state?
5. Where did the Republicans hold their convention in 1968?
6. This member of the "Chicago Seven" was later elected to political office. (He was also married to an infamous Hollywood actress.) Name the defendant, his elected office and the organization of radical thinkers he helped found.
7. What was the full name of the Yippie party?
8. Judge Julius Hoffman ordered one of the "Chicago Eight" defendants restrained during the trial, a move that inspired the opening lyrics of a song: "So your brother's bound and gagged. And they've tied him to a chair." Name the song title and songwriter.
9. During a scuffle inside the convention hall, a CBS TV reporter was knocked down by security personnel, prompting renowned newscaster Walter Cronkite to tell him, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here.'' Name the reporter.
10. Singers Arlo Guthrie and Judy Collins, poet Allen Ginsberg and psychologist and counterculture philosopher Timothy Leary played what role at the trial?
Answers:
1. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, Bobby Seale.
2. Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, demanded to represent himself or to have the trial continued until the attorney of his choice could represent him. The judge was outraged at his frequent outbursts during the trial. Seale was sentenced to four years in prison for contempt.
3. Richard J. Daley was mayor of Chicago in 1968. The current mayor, Richard M. Daley, is his son.
4. Edmund Muskie. President Jimmy Carter appointed Muskie as secretary of state in 1980 to replace Cyrus Vance who resigned in protest over the failed mission to rescue American hostages in Iran.
5. Miami Beach.
6. Tom Hayden served in the California legislature; he helped organize SDS, Students for a Democratic Society.
7. Youth International Party.
8. "Chicago" by Graham Nash.
9. Dan Rather
10. They were defense witnesses.
