A Look Back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=5371
General Information
Source:
Creator:
NBC Today Show
Jack Ford
Resource Type:
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
08/26/1968
08/25/1996
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1996
00:03:46
Description
Scott Simon of National Public Radio recalls his personal experiences as a young man at the 1968
Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Keywords
Vietnam War, 1968, Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey,
Protests, Riots, Unrest, Grant Park, Watts, Robert F. Kennedy, RFK, Martin Luther King Jr., MLK,
Mayor, Richard Daley, George McGovern, Abe Ribicoff, Revolution, Republican National Convention,
Miami, Scott Simon, National Public Radio
Citation
MLA
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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"A Look Back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention." Jack Ford, correspondent. NBC Today
Show. NBCUniversal Media. 25 Aug. 1996. NBC Learn. Web. 13 April 2015
APA
Ford, J. (Reporter). 1996, August 25. A Look Back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
[Television series episode]. NBC Today Show. Retrieved from
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=5371
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"A Look Back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention" NBC Today Show, New York, NY: NBC
Universal, 08/25/1996. Accessed Mon Apr 13 2015 from NBC Learn:
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=5371
Transcript
A Look Back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
JACK FORD, anchor:
For those of us old enough to remember, this Chicago convention quickly brings to mind the last time the
Democrats gathered here in the summer of 1968. It was a very different affair back then. National Public
Radio's Scott Simon was there running an underground newspaper, and he joins us now with his own look
back. Scott, good morning.
Mr. SCOTT SIMON (National Public Radio): Good morning. Nice to be with you.
FORD: And you.
Mr. SIMON: Thanks for adding, “for those of us.”
FORD: For those of us. I'm in your group.
Mr. SIMON: I was afraid I might be the only, the only one here.
FORD: Mm-hm.
Mr. SIMON: I was 16 that summer, and I was going to high school and Cub games. I was listening to Bob
Dylan and Laura Nero and Martha Reeves, and trying to use my young and inexperienced life to--to lend
a hand ending the war in Vietnam before I could be caught up in it. I smelled
the tear gas out in Grant Park, but I didn't inhale.
Mr. ROBERT KENNEDY: (From file footage) So, my thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago
and let's win there. Thank you very much.
Mr. SIMON: By the time the convention opened, Americans had already been rubbed raw by
assassinations and the unrest in inner cities from Watts to Washington, DC. And the deaths of tens of
thousands more whose names are now remembered on the wall.
Just two weeks before, and who remembers this, the Republicans met in Miami, and the unrest that burst
out there killed three people. But still, Chicago shocked the nation. It's also often forgotten that Mayor
Richard J. Daley didn't like the war any more than the protesters. After all, the war took federal spending
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out of Chicago's blighted neighborhoods to bomb the cities of North Vietnam, and sent boys back to
Chicago's neighborhoods in caskets.
Protesters: (From file footage) Hell no, we won't go. Hell no, we won't go.
Mr. SIMON: Mayor Daley disliked the war, but those of us in the park detested it. In the crunch, he
loathed long hair more than long wars. And we were both dug in so deep that we couldn't see the common
ground.
From the time of Lincoln, Chicago had been the favorite convention city of political parties because its
roads and rails, industries and neighborhoods were so central to what makes America.
Unidentified Man: (From file footage) He's an elected delegate.
Mr. SIMON: But, in 1968, Chicago found that being America's host city also meant being headquarters
for a social revolution. It bid for a major political convention that made only minor provisions for the
political protest which came along. When the city refused legal permits to what Mayor Daley called,
“hippies, yippies, and flippies,” it made lawful descent impossible and sent the commotion into the streets.
The mayor blamed outside agitators. All I know is that in Grant Park, I recognized a lot of people from
high school.
Crowd: (From file footage) The whole world's watching! The whole world's watching!
Mr. SIMON: Even 28 years later I don't feel the need to apologize for all but a few of the people with
whom I stood. What took place, as a federal commission later put it, was a police riot. A few, very few
protesters may have lobbed rocks or cans. More than a few launched epithets. My grandfather was a
Chicago policeman. I didn't like hearing people shout “pig” at the police. But, what do you call men in
blue who take off their badges to beat people armed, at most, with loud mouths and long hair? Senator
Abe Ribicoff wrote an oath even uglier.
Senator ABE RIBICOFF: (From file footage) And with George McGovern as president of the United
States, we wouldn't have to have Gestapo scare tactics in the streets of Chicago.
Mr. SIMON: What Mayor Daley bellowed back a curse, lip readers deciphered as anti-Semitic. Chicago's
chaos divided the Democrats for Richard Nixon. Probably not what either the protesters or the party
wanted. Hubert Humphrey tried to win them back, but discovered, as the U.S. did in Vietnam, that
compromise comes hard after blood has been drawn.
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