Andrew Rapp

        The protests/ riots at the Democratic National Convention took place in August of 1968 (Smithsonian).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Jerry Rubin was the leader of the Yippies, the Youth Internationals Party, and their goal was to protest pretty much everything from the Vietnam War to Civil Rights (McKissack. 262). But the even more overarching goal was to get the police to attack them and make a huge scene out of the police attacking innocent protestors (McKissack. 263). Some of the protestors  even had bags of animal blood in which once the police attacked they dumped it on themselves and ran to the nearest camera in distress to appear like an innocent bystander mauled violently by the police.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        On Saturday the protestors left Lincoln Park once they were asked to at curfew which was 11:00pm (McKissack. 262). On Sunday and Monday night Yippies by the thousand tried to provoke the police into an attack (McKissack. 262). On Thursday, August 28, was when the main show began in which anti-war protestors were prohibited to march through town and when the Yippies provoked the police, the police finally moved in to rout them out leading to a bloody riot (McKissack. 263). Hundreds of protestors were injured (Brinkley. 781). The protests themselves were not successful in achieving changes for the war but on the other hand the protestors did receive the attention from the media they wanted (Chicagohs).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Due to the riots going on outside the main attention of the nation was on the riots instead of who would get the democratic nomination (Chicagohs). Many felt this move of aggression by the police to be a betrayal of American government on the people which frightened many as to what else the government would be able to do (Smithsonian). This event only contributed further to the social conflict of 1960s and 1970s as hippies and the baby boomers lost further faith in the government.

 

 

 

 

Citations

Top Picture-http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/convention_aug08_5_631.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg

Middle Picture-https://fondutv.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pownall_1.jpg

Bottom Picture-http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2008/12_1/images/fe2-1.jpg

 

-Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. Vol. 1. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print.

-McKissack, Pat, and Fredrick McKissack. The Civil Rights Movement in America from 1865 to the Present. Chicago: Childrens, 1987. Print.                                                  

-"History Files - Parades, Protests and Politics." History Files - Parades, Protests and Politics. Chicago Historical Society, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.                                                  

-"1968 Democratic Convention." Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.