At the time of the events of the film, 1968-69, the United States was already years deep into the Vietnam War. Despite the nation’s growing fear of the spread of communism, the Vietnam War was something that a majority of Americans opposed due to the brutal nature of the conflict, the institution of a draft that deployed eligible men 18 and up into the war, as well as the seemingly impossible odds of winning the war. As a result, protests against the war arose all over the nation. In 1968, the Democratic National Convention was to be held in Chicago, Illinois. Following this news, more than 10,000 people converged in Chicago in protest of a wide range of issues, ranging from the Vietnam War to other counter-culture issues like racial disparities and inequalities. While originally planned to be a peaceful protest, the protest devolved into riots as the protesters were met with the hostile presence of more than 17,000 men from both the Illinois Police Department and the Illinois National Guard.1
The main groups that made up the protest were the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE), which held Rennie Davis and David Dellinger, and Tom Hayden, and the Youth International Party (Yippies) which Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were apart of. Both groups did their best to get permits for their protest and bring awareness to the city of the large amount of people that would soon be congregating in the area but their permit requests were denied at each turn, specifically due to the fear that riots would take place should they be allowed to organize protests.3 The lack of permits did not hinder these groups though and thousands of protesters assembled in Chicago. After a violent clash between protesters and police, the main organizers of these two groups, along with Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale who had been in Chicago to give a speech, were arrested and federally charged by the United States Department of Justice with conspiracy and intent to cross state lines to incite a riot.4 The trial, United States v. Dellinger, could only be described as “less a trial than an act of vengeance,”5 because of the fact that the odds were significantly stacked against the members of the Chicago 8, later 7. The president judge of the case, Judge Julius Hoffman, held a heavy bias for the prosecution, the US, and was antagonistic and unfair towards the defense, the Chicago 7. This is seen in the way he refused the defense attorneys to administer an inquiry towards the members of the jury in order to scout for potential biases, as well as how he admonished the defense for the tiniest of things, like laughing.6 By the end of the trial, Hoffman had also handed out 175 counts of contempt for the members of the defense (including the attorneys, William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass).7
- Gross, Terry. “Author Says the Chicago 7 Trial Reflected “All the Conflicts in America.”” NPR, 18 Nov. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936164085/author-says-the-chicago-7-trial-reflected-all-the-conflicts-in-america. ↩︎
- Archives, Underwood. n.d. “279 1968 Chicago Riots Stock Photos, High-Res Pictures, and Images – Getty Images.” https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/1968-chicago-riots. ↩︎
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- “BRIA 6:4 the Case of the Defendant Who Was Bound and Gagged – Online Lessons – Bill of Rights in Action – Teach Democracy.” n.d. https://teachdemocracy.org/online-lessons/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-64-the-case-of-the-defendant-who-was-bound-and-gagged-4. ↩︎
- Famous Trials . “An Interview about the Trial with Abbie Hoffman (November 1969).” Famous-Trials.com, 2024, www.famous-trials.com/chicago8/1327-hoffmaninterview. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024. ↩︎
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