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CHICAGO '68 MEMORIES

August 28, 1998 from All Things Considered

NOAH ADAMS, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Noah Adams. August 28, 1968. Thirty years ago tonight, violence broke out in the streets of Chicago. The city was host to the Democratic Convention and thousands of anti-war, anti-Humphrey, pro-McCarthy, hippie and yippie protesters were there.

They came to speak out against the war in Vietnam. Nearly all of the demonstrators were in their teens and their 20s. They held sleep-ins in the city's parks.

The Democrats were deeply divided over the war. The convention rejected a dovish-anti-war plank put forward by McCarthy and McGovern in favor of one endorsing the Johnson Administration's Vietnam policy.

The convention nominated Hubert Humphrey to be its candidate.

Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago was in charge of security inside the hall and out. He had placed Chicago's 12,000 police officers on 12 hour-shifts. More than 5,000 members of the Illinois National Guard had been called in, and nearly 8,000 regular U.S. Army troops were standing by.

To add to the tension that night in Chicago, transportation and electrical workers were on strike. It was hot. It was tense. It had been a long summer.

Here are some of the voices that had been resonating in this country as that August night approached.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up the mountain and I've looked over and I've seen the promised land.

I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE BY AUDIENCE)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY: I'm only going to talk to you for a minute or so because I have some very sad news for all you and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens and people who love peace all over the world. And that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight...

(SCREAMS AND SOUNDS OF DISMAY)

... in Memphis, Tennessee.

TED KENNEDY: My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "some men see things as they are and say why; I dream things that never were and say: why not?"

(SOUNDBITE OF PARADE AND FESTIVE MUSIC)

MAYOR RICHARD DALEY, CHICAGO: The confrontation was not created by the police. The confrontation was created by the people who charged the police. Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all. The policeman isn't there to create disorder. The policeman is there to preserve this order.

(BEGIN AUDIO OF THE BALLAD OF THE GREEN BERET)

Fighting soldiers from the sky Fearless men who jump and die

(BEGIN SONG "FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH" BY BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD)

There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there Telling me I've got to beware

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING DEMONSTRATORS, NEWS ANNOUNCER TALKING OVER THEIR NOISE)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: One cop picked up a demonstrator and tossed them into the -- down the steps of subway.

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING DEMONSTRATORS)

NEWS ANCHOR: There goes the gas.

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING DEMONSTRATORS)

NEWS ANCHOR: Oh...

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING DEMONSTRATORS)

ANCHOR: Here they come. They're charging into it. They're charging into it.

NEWS ANCHOR: Fred, Fred. Fred, Fred

UNKNOWN POLICE OFFICER, DEMANDING DEMONSTRATORS LEAVE: Get out, get out of here. Get out.

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING DEMONSTRATORS)

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION MASTER OF CEREMONIES, CHICAGO, 1968: Attention.

UNKNOWN SPEAKER, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, 1968: Mr. Chairman, most delegates to this convention do not know that thousands of young people are being beaten in the streets of Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF CONVENTION ATTENDEES GASPING AND DEMONSTRATING DISMAY)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: I can see them shooting gas through the flamethrower. Yes, gas is being used over there. It's being shot into the crowd.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATORS REACTING TO GAS CANISTER PROPELLED BY POLICE)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: My gosh, it's strong.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATORS REACTING)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: It's kind of a yellow smoke.

(SOUNDBITE OF TEAR GAS BEING FIRED)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: There goes a big blast of tear gas, right into the crowd, a crowd that is trying to retreat. I can't see.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATORS)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: I've got to get out of here. I can't carry this story anymore. The gas is too strong. I can't see.

(SOUNDBITE OF TEAR GAS BEING FIRED)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: I think they're firing away. To hell with this story. Good bye.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATORS)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: They got me in the face. Oh, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just hang on. Don't rub it man, it makes it worse if you rub it in.

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: What do I do?

SECOND UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just leave it until we get you some water and then you wash it off. They will have water at the gas station over here.

(SOUNDBITE OF TEAR GAS BEING FIRED)

UNKNOWN NEWS ANCHOR: I can't see -- where am I?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're hanging on to me and I can see fine...

(SONG "FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH" BY BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, CONTINUED)

There's battle lines being drawn Nobody is right If everybody's wrong Young people speaking their minds Getting so much resistance From behind It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody looks what's going down

ADAMS: The voices of the summer of '68 from producer Barret Golding. Violence broke out at the Chicago convention 30 years ago tonight.

("FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH," BY BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, CONTINUED)

What a field day for the heat A thousand people in the street Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say hurray for our side

It's time to stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you're always afraid Step out of line, they come and take you away

You gotta stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down You gotta stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down You gotta stop now What's that sound Everybody look what's going down You gotta stop, children, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down

ADAMS: This is NPR, National Public Radio.