From 1860 to 2024, Chicago has hosted over twenty presidential nomination conventions. The most recent was the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which nominated Kamala Harris, and the earliest was the Republican National Convention, which nominated Abraham Lincoln. Of these 20 conventions, perhaps the most memorable is the 1968 Democratic Convention. The Vietnam War was raging on, and the American people were growing sick of it and the images they saw displayed on their televisions. The Civil Rights movement was in full effect nationwide, and the start of subversive culture left all sides of the political spectrum in tension. By the time the DNC began on August 26th, Chicago was about to boil over with protestors, delegates, politicians, The National Gaurd and Police, and by the time it ended on August 29th, six hundred protestors would be arrested, over 1,111 injuries were sustained by them and 192 police officers were injured. In three days, the city had turned from Mayor Richard J. Daley’s proudest achievement to a riot-filled blood bath.

To understand how the DNC turned violent so quickly, we have to look at the landscape of the country prior to the DNC. On October 8th, 1967, the Democratic Party announced that the convention would be held in Chicago the following year. Later that same month, The National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE) marched to the Pentagon and had an antiwar rally on the steps of the Pentagon, which ended in an estimated six hundred and fifty people being arrested for civil disobedience. Almost fifty thousand people attended the rally. Every day, more and more people are against the war in Vietnam. In January 1968, The Tet Offensive began in South Vietnam, which is often cited as the most significant turning point of American support for the war. The people wanted out of the war and fast. Disapproval of Lyndon B. Johnson’s handling of the war was skyrocketing, and he was often blamed for the war.