Democrats fear chaos of 1968 convention as they prepare to renominate Joe Biden in Chicago

CHICAGO – Anti-war protests. A divided Democratic Party. An unpopular candidate hobbled by a foreign military conflict.

In many ways, 2024 feels like 1968 all over again.

Flashbacks of bloody clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago during that chaotic summer are weighing heavily on the minds of Democrats as they prepare to return to the Windy City in August to formally nominate President Joe Biden for a second term.

Thousands of Americans angry over Biden’s staunch support of Israel in its war with Hamas are planning to protest outside the sports arena where he is to accept the nomination.

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Protest organizers already are locked in a court battle with Chicago over their plans to stage marches within blocks of the United Center, where most of the convention activity will take place. Chicago has refused to give them the necessary permits, citing security concerns and arguing the city doesn’t have enough resources to police the protests. The city has offered the groups an alternative protest site four miles away, which would place them in a completely different part of town out of sight from convention-goers. Organizers say that is unacceptable and have sued in federal court.

“We are going to be marching outside the United Center, or within sight of the United Center, regardless of whether we get a permit or not,” said Kobi Guillory, co-chairman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Visions of Americans marching through Chicago streets denouncing the government are raising concerns of confrontations with police and complicating Democrats’ plans for a carefully choregraphed stage show aiming to project the kind of party unity that energized many young voters during the Barack Obama era. The spectacle will notably unfold in Obama’s backyard.

“Scenes of chaos could undercut the president on one of the core themes of his successful 2020 run – a return to normalcy and end of chaos – while instead projecting a sense of disorder and ineffectiveness on the world stage,” said Melissa DeRosa, a Democratic strategist and author from New York.

“It’s bad on many levels,” she said.

There’s good reason for Democrats to be concerned. The turbulence and in-fighting of 1968 severely wounded the party’s nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who limped out of the convention and narrowly later lost to Republican Richard Nixon.

"Chicago was a catastrophe," Humphrey said later. "... I felt just like we had been in a shipwreck.”

The office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker − who sits on a national advisory board for Biden's campaign − and convention organizers referred questions about possible locations for the protests to city officials, who are in charge of the permitting process.

The city said in a statement that it has received applications from seven groups, and all seven have been denied following reviews by multiple city departments to identify potential conflicts and safety issues and to assess the availability of resources.

Asked about the permitting difficulties for protesters at an unrelated news conference, Pritzker said he supports "the idea people should express their First Amendment rights and protest if they would like to."

The governor also said convention-goers should be able to attend their various functions without being harassed. “Having said that, First Amendment rights are immutable, and we ought to be protecting those wherever we can,” he said.

A Secret Service spokesman told USA TODAY that in previous conventions and other occasions classified as National Special Security Events, "it’s not unusual” for local governments to deny all permits until the federal agency has established its security perimeter, where only credentialed people, residents and others with business in the area would be allowed to go.

“The Secret Service is charged with guaranteeing the security of the American government, and this is a major part of the democratic process,” spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said of the convention. “Our core focus is the safety and protection of the president, the people attending the events, so they can get where they start and end their day safely.”

It remains unclear how far away the perimeter would extend from Chicago's convention sites, Guglielmi said. But a map shared with USA TODAY of the perimeter used for a 2023 event in San Francisco showed it extended about a quarter of a mile around the event space. Any permits given beyond the perimeter would be up to the local government, he said.

Meanwhile, Republicans, who will hold their convention in Milwaukee in July, are urging the Secret Service to move protesters further away from their convention venues.

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'They need to hear us'

Groups planning to protest at the Democratic convention feel it's important for them to be able to make their case within earshot of the United Center, Guillory said, because “we’re not talking to the walls – we’re talking to politicians who have the power to address our demands.”

“They need to hear us, they need to see us to understand just how bitter people are about having their tax dollars go to funding a genocide,” he said.

Chicago officials, hoping to avoid a repeat of 1968, are taking no chances. The city recently passed an ordinance granting the Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department, one of the three largest in the nation, sweeping powers to establish a “security footprint” around convention locations and to buy an $11 million helicopter to help manage crowds.

Free-speech advocates have sounded alarms about the city’s convention strategy.

The ACLU of Illinois is “worried and concerned” about how the city will make room for “vigorous first amendment activity,” said Ed Yonkah, the organization’s director of public policy. Yonkah noted concerns about a Chicago Police Department “mass arrest policy” and the trouble would-be protestors have had getting permits to demonstrate within “sight and sound” of the convention.

“That reaction invites a certain kind of response from people, causes hard feelings and then leaves people determined to go where they’re being blocked from,” he said.

A city spokesperson said Mayor Brandon Johnson “deeply understands the need for both safety and de-escalation when it comes to dealing with protests.” The mayor’s office is working closely with law enforcement to “communicate with those who wish to protest and ensure that the city will be fully prepared to provide safety and security for everyone coming to our great city in August,” the spokesperson said.

Democrats returned to Chicago to nominate Bill Clinton for a second term in 1996, an era when young Americans were fascinated by grunge music, a new novelty called the Internet and when the country was notably not at war. It's the success of that convention that the city is hoping to replicate in August, said Brian Hopkins, an alderman who chairs the city’s Public Safety Committee.

“That convention,” Hopkins said, “exorcised demons.”

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'It's going to be messy'

The violence of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago has haunted the party for more than a half-century – especially in the weeks leading up to this summer’s convention amid a foreign war that has spawned thousands of aggressive protesters.

Back then, groups like the Youth International Party – the "yippies" – spent months planning ways to disrupt the Democratic convention with street theatre and mind games.

The latter included threats to contaminate the Chicago water system with LSD and to circulate "sexy" protesters to seduce the wives and/or girlfriends of delegates.

In reality, more than 10,000 protesters camped in city parks and staged marches and demonstrations through downtown streets during convention week.

Chicago police, egged on by Mayor Richard Daley, played a major role in the violence. Some officers wielded nightsticks to force demonstrators out of the parks. Some of the demonstrators responded by spitting on officers or throwing rocks, stones and bottles.

At one point, as Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes formally nominated Humphrey for president, television cameras switched to blue-helmeted police officers marching down Michigan Avenue, plowing into young demonstrators with clubs swinging.

Protestors chanted a dirge that echoed for decades: "The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!"

The Democratic Party had already been traumatized politically in 1968. President Lyndon Johnson, burdened by Vietnam, withdrew from the race in March. Then came the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

Then came Chicago.

“The elements are there” for another “perfect storm” of disruption at this year’s convention, said Luke Nichter, author of "The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968."

Chicago in '68 is remembered in part because of the television coverage, Nichter said. There were only three networks at the time, and their coverage "ultimately glamorized the mob – and voters were horrified,” Nichter said.

This summer, “I think it's going to be messy," he said. "The question is, what does the media do?”

Parallels to 1968

This time around, most of the momentum for protest comes again from students and young people, particularly Arab Americans who are supportive of the Palestinians.

Historian James Traub, a biographer of Humphrey, said there are several "parallels" between the run-up to the 1968 convention and the planning for this year's event in August.

"Biden and the party clearly have to fear that some version of what happened in 1968 might happen in 2024," Traub said.

Politically, Biden could face the same basic challenge that Humphrey did 56 years ago: Addressing the issues of the war protestors on his political left while not alienating more conservative voters who abhor the demonstrations and, in this case, support Israel.

"The question is, how do you thread that needle," said Traub, author of "True Believer: Hubert Humphrey's Quest for a More Just America."

Traub pointed out that polls back in 1968 reflected solid support for Mayor Daley and the Chicago police.

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Osama Siblani – publisher of The Arab American News, the largest and most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States – noted that Chicago already has a large Palestinian community and they have staged many demonstrations in recent weeks. More than 3% of the city's population is also Jewish.

The convention protests are likely to be the biggest yet against the war in Gaza, although Siblani also said he expects them to be peaceful. "The intent here isn't to disrupt the convention," he said. "It's just to deliver a message to Joe Biden."

He also noted that messengers are not just Palestinian and Arab, but people from all walks of life. While the war in Gaza is the overarching concern of protesters, groups also plan demonstrations around issues including immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights.

"It's all people who are disenchanted with the Biden administration," Siblani said. "There will be a lot of people there at the convention."

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Past conventions and protests

Some Democrats downplay the possibility of a repeat of 1968.

The anti-war protests that rocked the convention that year were fueled to some extent by the fact that Americans were being drafted into the military and that U.S. soldiers were dying in Vietnam. There is no military draft today, and no U.S. troops are fighting in Gaza. And while the war in Gaza has touched off demonstrations that have shut down college campuses across the country, those protests don’t have the scale or the intensity of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile, who has attended each of her party’s conventions since 1984, said Democrats have held successful past conventions amid protests, pointing to unrest over the Iraq War in 2004 as one example.

“The Democrats chose Chicago because it's a great city with a great story to tell, and I do believe that, hopefully, the focus should be on the nominations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Brazile said.

“Security – just like logistics, just like housing, just like what activities will take place in and around the convention hall – all of those are concerns and all of those are topics that I'm sure the convention planners are working on,” she said.

Democrats insist their convention, which is expected to draw 50,000 people, will provide an opportunity to draw a contrast between Biden’s agenda and that of Republicans, who are also divided over their likely nominee, Donald Trump, and his MAGA policies.

“There is overwhelming energy and excitement among party leaders from all 57 states and territories who are gearing up to renominate President Biden this August,” said Matt Hill, senior director of communications for the convention committee. “Our unity stands in stark contrast to the chaos and division stewing among extreme MAGA Republicans in the GOP."

The proximity of the Republican National Convention − scheduled for July in Milwaukee, about 100 miles north of Chicago − will draw further attention to the contrasting goals of the two parties, said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

“What we're going to see in the Republican convention in July in Wisconsin and in this Democratic convention here in Chicago is a tale of two parties, a tale of two conventions and a tale of two visions for this country,” Wikler said.

That is the image Democrats hope to leave Americans with – not flashbacks of 1968.

Contributing: Joey Garrison

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats fear chaos of 1968 as they gear up for Chicago convention