Chicago Seven


The Chicago Seven, originally the Chicago Eight and also known as the Conspiracy Eight or Conspiracy Seven, were seven defendants – Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner – charged by the United States Department of Justice with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and 1960s counterculture protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The Chicago Eight became the Chicago Seven after the case against codefendant Bobby Seale was declared a mistrial.
All of the defendants were charged with and acquitted of conspiracy; Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin were charged with and convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot; Froines and Weiner were charged with teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices and acquitted of those charges. All of the convictions were later reversed on appeal, and the government declined to retry the case. While the jury deliberated, Judge Julius Hoffman convicted the defendants and their attorneys of contempt of court and sentenced them to jail sentences ranging from less than three months to more than four years. The contempt convictions were also appealed, and some were retried before a different judge.
Since the beginning of the trial in 1969, the defendants and their attorneys have been depicted in a variety of art forms, including film, music, and theater.

Background

Planning for the 1968 DNC protests

In the fall of 1967, David Dellinger was the director of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, and planning began during Mobe meetings for an anti-war demonstration at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. A similar plan was created by SDS Vice President Vernon T. Grizzard titled "Summer 1968: Possibilities for New Local Organizing". In early 1968, the Tet Offensive against American forces in Vietnam started, and in February, Walter Cronkite said the war was "lost." In March, Johnson ended his campaign for the nomination.
Protests against the war continued, and Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden became directors of the Mobe office in Chicago. A counterculture group known as Yippies, including Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, also planned a "Festival of Life", announced at a press conference on March 17, as a response to what they described as the Democratic "Convention of Death". In January, the Yippies had issued a statement that included: "Join us in Chicago in August for an international festival of youth music and theater ... Come all you rebels, youth spirits, rock minstrels, truth seekers, peacock freaks, poets, barricade jumpers, dancers, lovers and artists ... We are there! There are 500,000 of us dancing in the streets, throbbing with amplifiers and harmony. We are making love in the parks ..." In a March meeting at Lake Villa, Illinois, coordination of demonstrations was discussed by representatives from various groups; Hayden and Davis drafted a proposal that included "the campaign should not plan violence and disruption against the Democratic National Convention. It should be nonviolent and legal."
Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, there were riots in Chicago and other cities. In June 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.
Most of the permits applied for by the Mobe and the Yippies for protest-related activities were denied. Rennie Davis sought help from the Justice Department, and argued permits would lower the risk of violence between protesters and police, but was unsuccessful. A week before the start of the convention, Mobe organizers sued in federal court to obtain permits to use the parks, but were denied on August 23.

The 1968 DNC protests

A variety of groups convened in Chicago to protest during the convention week, including the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the Yippies. The Black Panther Party and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference also sent representatives to protest racism.
On Friday, August 23, the Yippies nominated their own candidate for president: a 145-pound pig they called Pigasus, who according to Frank Kusch, was "released to the public" at the Civic Center Plaza and promptly "arrested" by police as he was "interviewed" by journalists. Five Yippies were taken to jail, including Jerry Rubin and Phil Ochs, while Pigasus was released to the Chicago Humane Society, and the Yippies were released after they each posted a $25 bond.
By the weekend before the convention, about 2,000 demonstrators had set up camp in Lincoln Park. On Saturday, August 24, Lincoln Park was cleared almost without incident, with Allen Ginsberg leading many protesters out of the park before the 11 p.m. curfew. According to Frank Kusch, police cleared the park and arrested eleven people for failing to disperse, while a crowd outside of the park suddenly ran toward the main street in Old Town yelling "Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!" and then marched for ten blocks before police arrived and the demonstrators quickly blended into the regular crowds on the sidewalks.
For the convention, the 11,900 members of the Chicago Police Department were put on twelve-hour shifts, and nearly 6,000 members of the National Guard were sent to the city, with an additional 5,000 National Guard on alert, and approximately 1,000 FBI and military intelligence officers, and 1,000 Secret Service agents were in the city. The 4,865 city firefighters were ordered to work extra shifts beginning on the Sunday before the convention, and the Chicago Police Department placed 1,500 uniformed officers outside the International Amphitheatre, where the Democratic convention was held, including snipers.
The number of demonstrators in Chicago was estimated to be about 10,000. From inside the International Amphitheatre, CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite reported: "The Democratic convention is about to begin in a police state. There just doesn't seem to be any other way to say it."
On Sunday, August 25, protest leaders allegedly told people to "test the curfew", while there were several thousand people in Lincoln Park, around bonfires, beating drums, and chanting. When the park was officially closed at 11 p.m., Chicago police used tear gas and moved in with billy-clubs to forcibly remove them from the park. Police formed a skirmish line and cleared the park, ending up on Stockton Drive, with about 200 police facing about 2,000 protesters. Protesters, journalists, photographers, and bystanders were clubbed and beaten by the police.
On August 26, demonstrators gathered in Grant Park and climbed on a statue of General Logan on a horse, which led to violent skirmishes with police. Police hauled a young man down and arrested him, breaking his arm in the process. The only permit granted to the Mobe for the convention week was for a rally at the Grant Park band shell for the afternoon of August 28, and it was granted on August 27, after the convention began. David Dellinger told members of the media, "We'll march with or without a permit", and that Grant Park was only a "staging area for the march".
On the morning of August 28, Abbie Hoffman was arrested for writing the word "FUCK" on his forehead. In the afternoon, Dellinger, Seale, Davis, and Hayden addressed thousands of demonstrators at the band shell in Grant Park. After the rally at the Grant Park bandshell, several thousand protesters attempted to march to the International Amphitheatre, but were stopped in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, where the presidential candidates and campaigns were headquartered, by what David Taylor and Sam Morris of The Guardian describe as "a phalanx of National Guard armed with M1 rifles, backed by machine guns and jeeps with cages on top and barbed wire frames in front." In a sit down protest, the crowd chanted "the whole world is watching".
Film and videotape reports from "The Battle of Michigan Avenue", described by Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times as "a 17-minute melee in front of the Conrad Hilton", were broadcast on television, interrupting the live coverage of the third evening of the convention. The police violence extended to protesters, bystanders, reporters and photographers, while tear gas reached Hubert Humphrey in his hotel suite. Police pushed protesters through plate-glass windows, then pursued them inside and beat them as they sprawled on the broken glass. 100 protesters and 119 police officers were treated for injuries, and 600 protesters were arrested. Police brutality and demonstrators chanting "The whole world is watching" were filmed by national news outlets and broadcast on the same night that Humphrey won the presidential nomination.
Paul Cowan of The Village Voice reports that by Thursday, Tom Hayden was in disguise by Grant Park, Jerry Rubin was in jail, and Rennie Davis was recovering from a beating by the police. After a speech by Eugene McCarthy in Grant Park that afternoon, a march was joined by delegates and McCarthy supporters but was stopped at 18th Street and Michigan Avenue by the National Guard. Arrests were followed by tear gas and mace, while marchers chanted "The whole world is watching" and retreated to Grant Park. In the park, demonstrators sang "God Bless America", "This Land Is Your Land", and "The Star-Spangled Banner", and waved "V" signs above their heads, asking soldiers to join in. They never did. Phil Ochs sang "I Ain't Marchin' Any More", and demonstrators chanted "join us" softly. Five hours later, police officers raided a party organized by McCarthy workers in the Hilton hotel, and beat them viciously. According to the McCarthy workers, all telephones on their floor had been disconnected a half hour before, and they had no way to call for help.

Investigation of the violence

Investigations were conducted by the City of Chicago, the U.S. Department of Justice, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. On September 6, 1968, the Daley administration issued a report that focused on "outside agitators" with an "avowed purpose of a hostile confrontation with law enforcement."
Bruce Ragsdale writes that the HUAC chair, Richard Ichord, "suspected communist involvement in the demonstrations", but the hearings "devolved into a bizarre preview of the conspiracy trial when a shirtless, barefooted Jerry Rubin burst into the hearing room with a bandolier of bullets and a toy gun." In October 1968, Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing an American flag shirt while trying to attend a HUAC meeting after being subpoenaed to appear. Tom Hayden also testified during the hearings.
On September 4, 1968, Milton Eisenhower, chair of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, announced the commission would investigate and report its findings to President Lyndon Johnson. Supervised by Daniel Walker, more than 200 investigators conducted interviews of more than 1,400 witnesses and reviewed FBI reports and film. The Walker Report was released on December 1, 1968, and described the violence as a "police riot". The report summary included:
The Walker Report also acknowledged provocation and violence by some protesters and stated the "vast majority of the demonstrators were intent on expressing by peaceful means their dissent."
The Department of Justice investigation did not support prosecution of demonstrators. Attorney General Ramsey Clark asked the U.S. attorney in Chicago to investigate the Chicago police.