The Democratic Convention in 1968 was everything but a normal and calm event. The convention took place in Chicago and just like everything at that year was turbulent and notorious.
The convention started at August 29, after the assassination of Martin Luther King (April) and Robert Kennedy (June), who was the favourite for the nomination.
In an environment like this and with a lot of demonstrations all over the country the convention started and ended with riotsbetween demonstrators and the local police. The violence also caught journalists like Dan Rather and Mike Wallace, very popular ate the United States at that time.
One day before the inauguration there was a lot of violence with 10,000 protesters facing the police. The use of tear gas was so intense that it invaded even Hubert Humphrey room in Hilton Hotel. Humphrey was later nominated as the Democratic candidate and lost for Richard Nixon.
The TV showed the riots and the violence shocked the public. The police beated people that in response threw rocksand chunks of concrete. In August 28 all the confrontation was transmitted by national TV during almost 20 minutes.
The violence remained until the end of the convention. And even with the criticism about the police violence, polls demonstrated that most of the Americans supported the repression.
It was a kind of a trailer of what was going to happen later during the election. Besides all the protests of million of people Richard Nixon won the election.
In 1968, everything seemed to be a surprise...
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