John RefiorAug 19, 2024

My Mom was there. She wrote:

"The Cook County Dept. of Public Aid, where I worked on Roosevelt Rd. on the West Side, burned down in the riots in April after Martin Luther King’s assassination"

NYTimes:

"When Chaos Came to #Chicago: An Oral History of the 1968 #Convention #Riots

"When #Democrats met that year, the violence that erupted between protesters and the #police shook the nation. Here are memories of some of the people who lived it."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/19/us/dnc-1968-chicago-protests.html?unlocked_article_code=1.EE4.1-GX.qAn4HOxzO4QM&smid=em-share
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#GiftArticle #CivilRights

A History of the Chicago DNC Protests in 1968

When Democrats met that year, the violence that erupted between protesters and the police shook the nation. Here are memories of some of the people who lived it.

The New York Times
Show threadJohn RefiorAug 19, 2024
She was living and working in Chicago as a social worker during both the #MLK assassination riots and fires and the Democratic National Convention riots.
Show threadJohn RefiorAug 19, 2024
"There was the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy in June, the Vietnam War, police intrusion and the growing disenfranchisement felt by many Americans, especially the African American community. These events heightened emotions and created a sense of unrest in the air. People were on edge."
—Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Show threadJohn RefiorAug 19, 2024
"We felt the real change in the war and civil rights would not come from the top. We weren’t so much invested in the Democratic victory over Richard Nixon. Most of the young activists in our organization were tired of the war, opposed to the draft, and they were not going to vote for the war party, which is what the Democrats were then, and to a large degree are now... what we wanted to do was impact that debate from the streets"
—Michael Klonsky, Students for a Democratic Society
Show threadJohn RefiorAug 19, 2024

"Most of them were sleeping in the parks, but then goofy Daley said that the wonderful people of Chicago can’t sleep in the parks, and the hippies and the yippies won’t either."
—Bob Angone, Chicago police officer

"Once they tried to run us out of the parks and things got nasty, there was no backing down. There was no way out."
—Klonsky

Show threadJohn Refior
"On Wednesday night, the third night of the convention, the most intense confrontation of the week between protesters and the police and National Guard troops erupted on Michigan Avenue, outside the hotel then known as the Conrad Hilton. The police beat demonstrators with billy clubs and unleashed tear gas on the crowd. An official report concluded that the police acted with 'unrestrained and indiscriminate' violence."
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#police #cops #Chicago1968
Aug 19, 2024 at 5:10pmWeb
Show threadJohn RefiorAug 19, 2024

"I don’t think there was one thing that provoked it. It wasn’t just the cops’ fault; they were being told from the top down to go out there and teach us a lesson. I think they wanted to show #Republican #voters that the #Democrats were law-and-order people too. Daley especially, who was being attacked inside the convention for allowing this disorder to happen.

"It was the #politics of the time. It meant that every #protest had to be met with a show of force."
—Klonsky