Lesson Plan: 1968 Democratic National Convention – The Mess in Chicago
Grades 8-12
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago has been defined by the street battle between city police and anti-war protesters, but an equally important fight took place behind the cameras. The party that year was bitterly divided over the Vietnam War. Divisions were exaggerated by the party primaries, which pitted anti-war candidates Senator Eugene McCarthy against Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
That battle was nullified when Kennedy was assassinated just after narrowly winning the California primary in June. But when the Chicago convention started in August, the favored candidate was not the anti-war McCarthy, but Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, a liberal who supported the war.
That split the party even further. Humphrey had not even entered a primary but he was able to secure the inside track and eventually the nomination, thanks to the support of party bosses like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. They controlled blocks of delegates who were not subject to primary elections. Humphrey’s loss to Richard M. Nixon that fall led to dramatic reforms within the Democratic Party that shifted the selection of delegates to primaries and caucuses.
That decision significantly increased voter participation, but decisive presidential defeats in 1972 and in 1980 eventually led to more party reforms, which returned a percentage of so-called super delegates to members of Congress and state chairs by 1984.
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