The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 12, 1968 Page: 3 of 8
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The politics of confrontation—Part II
Jeeps roll into the loop as the city begins to fall apart
I _ . ...... • . lAiidnnaabars a tnnesAnffPr hrnnffVit. word that urn pHtrp of spats ill fl'Ollt OI
(ThU is the second of a two-part
eyewitness report on the events on the
street* of Chicago during; the Demo-
cratic National Convention. The first
part appeared in last week's Thresh-
er.—Ed.)
By DENNIS BAHLER
Tuesday, August 27
Tuesday night in Lincoln
Park the Yippies staged a rally
in support of Huey Newton, a
leader of the militant Black
Panther Party for Self-Defense
in Oakland, Cal., who has been
jailed by Oakland Police in con-
nection with the murder of a
police officer last fall.
Bobby Seale, chairman of the
party, spoke to the crowd.
"Chicago revealed its true na-
ture to a lot of you last night,"
he said. "People think this
country is free until they really
try to change it. You step one
foot out of line, and they cut
that foot off. Some of you saw
what I'm talking about last
night in this park."
Tuesday was the 60th birth-
day of Lyndon Baines Johnson,
and the Democrats had sche-
duled a birthday party for the
President at the Amphitheater.
The Mobilization, in turn, stag-
ed an all-day "Anti-Birthday
Bash" at the Colosseum on the
near south side, seven blocks
from the Hilton.
At an evening rally at the
Colosseum, nearly 10,000 people
heard speakers like Dave Del-
linger, co-leader of the Mobiliz-
ation, Dick Gregory, indepen-
dent write-in candidate for
President, and Paul Krassner,
down prince of the left.
"We have put Chicago on the
map," declared Dellinger. "It is
now known all over the world
as the Prague of the Midwest."
He welcomed to the ranks of
the protestors the newsmen
who were beaten in Lincoln
Park the night before.
"We have invited people from
all over to put their bodies on
the line for what they believe
in," he said, "and they have ac-
cepted our invitation."
Gregory drew a long standing
ovation when he approached the
mike. "If people had challeng-
ed Adolph Hitler the way you
kids are challenging Mayor
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Daley," he said, "a lot of Jews
would be alive today."
"I hope you've seen what you
have to change here this week,"
he went on. Referring to Viet-
nam, he declared, "If democracy
is as good a thing as they tell
you, then why. do we have to
go all over the world ramming
it down peoples' throats with
a gun?"
Author William Burroughs,
who had been in Lincoln Park
the night before, rose to read
a statement condemning the ac-
tions of the cops. "The police
behaved as vicidus mad dogs,"
he said. "Why is this not con-
trolled? Is there not an ordi-
nance requiring that vicious
dogs be muzzled?"
Jean Genet, also in a pre-
pared statement, echoed the
sentiment. "It is natural for
dogs to act not out of intellect,
but with the instincts of mad
dogs," he declared. He went on
to say that the whites who had
suffered at the hands of the
cops should not forget that
what they had experienced has
been visited with even greater
brutality on the blacks for 150
"You step one foot out
of line and they cut that
foot off. Some of you
saw what I'm talking
about last night in the
park."
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their rooms, the loudspeakers
in the park, which had been
used for speeches and songs un-
til then, were turned around to
face the hotel.
"I wonder what you'd call
me," one of the demonstrators
asked the delegates through
the mike. "I'm young, so you
might call me immature. I'm
"If democracy is as
good a thing as they tell
you, then why do we
have to go all over the
world ramming it down
peoples' throats with a
gun?"
years. "The hippies have res-
ponded to the clownish conven-
tion by demonstrations in the
park which are filled with
poetry," he concluded.
Terry Southern, the third
literary figure to speak, thought
the cop-dog image "apt." "But
I also detected a salient strain
of swine in those who attacked
the demonstrators. The police
evidenced a total lack of dis-
cernment in attacking students,
clergymen, newsmen, and citi-
zens in their own back yards."
Rennie Davis, another co-
leader of the Mobe, then got up
to announce that tonight there
were two fronts, the "usual"
one in Lincoln Park, and a
"new" one in Grant Park di-
rectly across the street from
the Conrad Hilton Hotel, con-
vention headquarters.
The crowd streamed out after
deciding which of the two parks
they would proceed to. Most
went to Grant Park.
Tension mounted as the crowd
from the Colosseum filtered in-
to the park. The cops lined the
east side of Michigan Avenue,
and were massed four and five
deep in front of the main en-
trance to the Hilton.
The cops brought in busload
after busload of fresh men, and
some of these moved in quietly
across tfife Illinois Central
Railroad tracks behind the dem-
onstrators, and along streets on
both sides of them.
Some of the more obsei-vant
demonstrators suspected an
imminent attack. A cop moved
among the reporters, suggest-
ing that they might more safe-
ly watch the proceedings from
across the street.
In Grant Park, about 3500
protestors watched as the char-
tered buses brought the dele-
gates back from the Amphi-
theater. As soon as the ladies
and gentlemen were back in
wearing a clerical collar, so you
might call me a priest. I have
long hair, so you might call me
a hippie. You might even call
me a dirty hippie, but I took
a bath just before I came over
here. I have a degree from the
Illinois Institute of Technology,
so you might call me an engi-
neer. But I'm really not any of
those things; all I ask is that
you think of me as a human be-
ing."
Soon, sympathetic delegates
began coming down from their
lofty, plush suites to speak to
the gathered crowd. Delegates
and alternates from New Hamp-
shire, California, Minnesota,
and the District of Columbia
all spoke briefly, as the cops
lining both sides of the street
and massed in front of the main
entrance to the hotel stared
malevolently at the gathering.
A member - of the Alabama
challenge delegation drew cheers
from the crowd when he said,
gesturing toward the cops,
"There is one thing that com-
ing down here with you has
made me realize: We don't need
these pigs to protect us from
you."
The National Guard moved
in, 800 strong, at about 3:30
"All I ask is that you
think of me as a human
being."
am. Sixteen jeeps, some mount-
ed with machine guns, two
covered with barbed wire, roll-
ed in front of the hotel, and the
Guard began replacing the cops
on the east side of Michigan
Avenue between Balbo and 8th.
The scene took on a surrealis-
tic quality, with the lights from
the television cameras and po-
lice searchlights illuminating
the tops of trees, the heads of
demonstrators, and the dark
gi'een jeeps and helmets of the
Guard. All else was bathed in
darkness.
One man in the crowd re-
marked, "I was in Germany in
1937, and this is worse. There
is the same feeling in the at-
mosphere."
A bearded young man strolled
through the park carrying a
sign reading, "Gemeindeschuld
fur Amerika."
At 4:40, the loudspeakers
were turned off, and most of the
crowd settled down to sleep on
benches, in the grass, or under
trees. At 6 the scene was peace-
fully still, though the National
Guard remained at parade rest
at the curb.
But the crowd was quickly
reminded of uglier things when
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a messenger brought word that
the cops had poured 150 tear
gas grenades into Lincoln Park
that night. A group of ministers
and seminarians, led by a 30-
year-old priest from Minnesota,
had been holding a religious
service in front of a large, 12-
foot cross in one corner of the
park at midnight. The first
grenade had landed in their
midst.
Wednesday, August 28
The Mobilization had been
granted permission to hold a
non-violent rally Wednesday af-
ternoon at the Grant Park Band
Shell, across the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad tracks and Colum-
bus Drive from the Conrad Hil-
ton. Nearly 15,000 people at-
tended.
For the first time, a signifi-
cant proportion of the crowd
was made up of people who
couldn't be classified as "hip-
pies" or "yippies," as the Chic-
"I was in Germany in
1937, and this is worse.
There is the same feeling
in the atmosphere."
ago press regularly referred to
the dissidents.
Many persons at the rally
were middle-aged or elderly,
many were young but neatly
dressed. Some people brought
their children. McCarthy but-
tons were seen everywhere, and
representatives of Marcus Ras-
kin's fourth party movement
put in their first appearance of
the week.
The rally was proceeding
smoothly, having been juiced up
by Norman Mailer's exclama-
tion that "you people are bet-
ter than you were at the Penta-
gon," when someone in the
crowd rushed up to a flag po\e
at one corner of the meeting
area, and began to lower the
American flag to half-mast.
The cops quickly moved in, and
there was a scuffle. Parade
marshalls, the more experienced
demonstrators, moved in be-
tween the cops and the crowd,
and everyone was urged to sit
down.
The marshalls, who had a bet-
ter view of the clash than most
people, soon reported that, there
were 50 cops battling with pro-
testors. The cops moved in and
formed a line ringing the west-
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ern edge of seats in front of
the Band Shell.
Suddenly, and without appar-
ent prpvocation, the cops drew
their clubs, and charged into
the westernmost two sections of
seats, scattering benches and
bodies before them. The cops
then massed in another line,
glaring at the huddled crowd,
then filed out.
One girl injured in the melee
required 14 stitches to close the
wounds in her face and head.
The rally proceeded as best it
could, and at its end Dave Del-
linger, the master of ceremon-
ies, gave the crowd three choic-
es. People could join a non-vio-
lent march to the Amphithea-
ter, which was being organized
without a permit; people could
sit quietly and hope that the
cops would let them leave the
area without harassment; or
they could begin to leave the
park immediately, and take to
the streets in small groups.
At 5 pm, the march prepared
to attempt to leave Grant Park,
which by now was ringed with
police and National Guardsmen
wearing gas masks, by way of
Columbus Drive.
The march got as far as the
intersection of Columbus and
Balbo, still in the middle of the
park. There it was halted by
police, and kept hemmed in un-
til it broke up over two hours
later.
Meanwhile most of the other
demonstrators had been at-
tempting to leave the park by
way of bridges across the rail-
road tracks, but found all but
two of them blocked by the
Guard.
At the Congress Street
bridge, Guardsmen with gas
masks and fixed bayonets fired
a round of tear gas into the
fleeing demonstrators, who were
forced to dunk their heads in
fountains to ease the burning in
their eyes.
In an incident at the Congress
Street bridge widely seen on
television, Guardsmen stopped
an auto driven by a middle-aged
lady, rammed a gi-enade launch-
er loaded with tear gas through
the window into her face, and
refused her permission to turn
around and continue on her
way.
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Bahler, Dennis. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 12, 1968, newspaper, September 12, 1968; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245034/m1/3/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.