Frank Beacham's Journal

The trial for eight antiwar activists charged with violent demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago on this day in 1969 — 52 years ago today

Photo by Richard Avedon

The trial for eight antiwar activists charged with the responsibility for the violent demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago on this day in 1969 — 52 years ago today.

The defendants included David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee (NMC); Rennie Davis and Thomas Hayden of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, founders of the Youth International Party ("Yippies"); and two lesser known activists, Lee Weiner and John Froines.

Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number of defendants from eight to seven. The group was charged with conspiracy to cross state lines with intent to incite a riot. All but Seale were represented by attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass.

The trial, presided over by Judge Julius Hoffman, turned into a circus as the defendants and their attorneys used the court as a platform to attack Nixon, the war, racism and oppression. Their tactics were so disruptive that at one point, Judge Hoffman ordered Seale gagged and strapped to his chair.

The Chicago Seven were indicted for violating the Rap Brown law, which had been tagged onto the Civil Rights Bill earlier that year by conservative senators. The law made it illegal to cross state lines in order to riot or to conspire to use interstate commerce to incite rioting. President Johnson's attorney general, Ramsey Clark, refused to prosecute the case.

When the trial ended in February, 1970, Hoffman found the defendants and their attorneys guilty of 175 counts of contempt of court and sentenced them to terms between two to four years. Although declaring the defendants not guilty of conspiracy, the jury found all but Froines and Weiner guilty of intent to riot. The others were each sentenced to five years and fined $5,000.

However, none served time because in 1972, a Court of Appeal overturned the criminal convictions and eventually most of the contempt charges were dropped as well.

Crosby, Stills and Nash perform "Chicago"

On this day in 1940 — 81 years ago — the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States was imposed

Vietnam Veterans Against the War, 1972

Photo by Frank Beacham

On this day in 1940 — 81 years ago — the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States was imposed.

It came in the form of the Burke-Wadsworth Act, passed by Congress by wide margins in both houses. The measure gave birth to the Selective Service.

The registration of men between the ages of 21 and 36 began exactly one month later, as Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who had been a key player in moving the Roosevelt administration away from a foreign policy of strict neutrality, began drawing draft numbers out of a glass bowl.

The numbers were handed to the president, who read them aloud for public announcement. There were some 20 million eligible young men — 50 percent were rejected the very first year, either for health reasons or illiteracy (20 percent of those who registered were illiterate).

In November, 1942, with the United States now a participant in the war, and not merely a neutral bystander, the draft ages expanded. Men 18 to 37 were made eligible.

Blacks were passed over for the draft because of racist assumptions about their abilities and the viability of a mixed-race military. But this changed in 1943, when a "quota" was imposed, meant to limit the numbers of blacks drafted to reflect their numbers in the overall population, roughly 10.6 percent of the whole.

Initially, blacks were restricted to "labor units," but this too ended as the war progressed, when they were finally used in combat.

"Conscientious objector" (CO) status was granted to those who could demonstrate "sincerity of belief in religious teachings combined with a profound moral aversion to war."

Quakers made up most of the COs, but 75 percent of those Quakers who were drafted fought. COs had to perform alternate service in Civilian Public Service Camps, which entailed long hours of hazardous work for no compensation.

About 5,000 to 6,000 men were imprisoned for failing to register or serve the nation in any form. These numbers were comprised mostly of Jehovah's Witnesses.

By war's end, approximately 34 million men had registered and 10 million served with the military. However, the draft laws remained intact.

Of the more than 72,000 men registering as conscientious objectors (CO), nearly 52,000 received CO status. Of these, over 25,000 entered the military in noncombatant roles, another 12,000 went to civilian work camps and nearly 6,000 went to prison.

Draft evasion only accounted for about four percent of the total inducted. About 373,000 alleged evaders were investigated with just over 16,000 being imprisoned.

The large cohort of Baby Boomers who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War was responsible for a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college students.

Besides being able to avoid the draft, college graduates who volunteered for military service (primarily as commissioned officers) had a much better chance of securing a preferential posting compared to less-educated inductees.

As U.S. troop strength in Vietnam increased, more young men were drafted for service there, and many of those still at home sought means of avoiding the draft.

Since only 15,000 National Guard and Reserve soldiers were sent to Vietnam, enlistment in the Guard or the Reserves became a popular means of avoiding serving in a war zone.

For those who could meet the more stringent enlistment standards, service in the Air Force, Navy or Coast Guard was a means of reducing the chances of being killed. Vocations to the ministry and the rabbinate soared, because divinity students were exempt from the draft.

Doctors and draft board members found themselves being pressured by relatives or family friends to exempt potential draftees.

Some conscientious objectors objected to the war based on the theory of Just War. One of these, Stephen Spiro, was convicted of avoiding the draft, but given a suspended sentence of five years. He was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford.

There were 8,744,000 service members between 1964 and 1975, of whom 3,403,000 were deployed to Southeast Asia.

From a pool of approximately 27 million, the draft raised 2,215,000 men for military service (in the United States, Vietnam, West Germany and elsewhere) during the Vietnam era.

The draft has also been credited with "encouraging" many of the 8.7 million "volunteers" to join rather than risk being drafted. The majority of servicemen deployed to Vietnam were volunteers.

Of the nearly 16 million men not engaged in active military service, 57 percent were exempted (typically because of jobs including other military service), deferred (usually for educational reasons), or disqualified (usually for physical and mental deficiencies but also for criminal records including draft violations).

During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon campaigned on a promise to end the draft. He had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, based upon a paper by Martin Anderson of Columbia University.

Nixon also saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam war movement, since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own probability of having to fight in it was gone.

There was opposition to the all-volunteer notion from both the Department of Defense and Congress, so Nixon took no immediate action towards ending the draft early in his presidency.

Instead, the Gates Commission was formed, headed by Thomas S. Gates, Jr., a former Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration. Gates initially opposed the all-volunteer army idea, but changed his mind during the course of the 15-member commission's work.

The Gates Commission issued its report in February, 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without having conscription. The existing draft law was expiring at the end of June, 1971, but the Department of Defense and Nixon administration decided the draft needed to continue for at least some time.

In February, 1971, the administration requested of Congress a two-year extension of the draft, to June 1973. It was approved.

Meanwhile, military pay was increased as an incentive to attract volunteers, and television advertising for the U.S. Army began. With the end of active U.S. ground participation in Vietnam, December, 1972 saw the last men conscripted, who were born in 1952 and who reported for duty in June, 1973.

On February 2, 1972, a drawing was held to determine draft priority numbers for men born in 1953, but in early 1973 it was announced that no further draft orders would be issued.

In March, 1973, 1974 and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955 and 1956, in case the draft was extended, but it never was. Jeff Mellinger, the last drafted enlisted ranked soldier still on active duty, retired in 2011.

The pressures of the draft during the Vietnam war had a great effect on the music produced in the period and shaped the classic rock and roll that is still played today.

On this day in 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being "brainwashed into a drug culture" by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers

On this day in 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being "brainwashed into a drug culture" by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers.

Three years later, Agnew resigned from office after being charged with extortion, bribery and conspiracy.

Above, Ralph Steadman depicted Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon at the 1972 Republican National convention in Miami

On this day in 1953 — 68 years ago today — Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the future 35th president of the United States, married Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island

On this day in 1953 — 68 years ago today — Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the future 35th president of the United States, married Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.

Seven years later, the couple would become the youngest president and first lady in American history.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was born into a prominent New York family in 1929 and grew into an avid horsewoman and reader. In 1951, after graduating from George Washington University, Jackie, as she was called, took a tour of Europe.

That fall, she returned to the U.S. to begin her first job as the Washington Times-Herald's "Inquiring Camera Girl." Shortly afterward, she met a young, handsome senator from Massachusetts named John Kennedy at a dinner party in Georgetown.

They dated over the next two years, during which time Jackie mused at the idea that she might actually marry a man who was allergic to horses, something she never thought she would have considered. In 1953, the two were engaged, when Kennedy gave Jackie a 2.88-carat diamond-and-emerald ring from Van Cleef and Arpels.

"Jack," as Kennedy was called, and Jackie married on September 12, 1953, at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Jackie wore an ivory silk gown made by Ann Lowe, an African-American designer.

The Catholic mass was attended by 750 guests and an additional 450 people joined the wedding reception at Hammersmith Farm. The couple danced to the Meyer Davis Orchestra's version of "I Married an Angel." Davis had also performed at Jackie's parents' wedding and at Kennedy's inaugural ball.

Thanks History.com

Jimmie Davis, country singer and former two-term governor of Louisiana, was born 122 years ago today

Jimmie Davis, country singer and former two-term governor of Louisiana, was born 122 years ago today.

A noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the Governor of Louisiana (1944–1948 and 1960–1964), Davis was a nationally popular country music and gospel singer from the 1930s into the 1960s, occasionally recording and performing as late as the early 1990s.

Born in 1899 to a sharecropping couple, the family was so poor that young Jimmie did not have a bed in which to sleep until he was nine years old.

Davis graduated from Beech Springs High School and Soule Business College, New Orleans campus. He received his bachelor's degree in history from the Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville and received a master's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Davis's 1927 master's thesis examined the intelligence levels of different races, and is titled Comparative Intelligence of Whites, Blacks and Mulattoes. He taught history (and, unofficially, yodeling) for a year at the former Dodd College for Girls in Shreveport during the late 1920s.

He was hired by the college president, Monroe Elmon Dodd, who was also the pastor of the large First Baptist Church of Shreveport and a pioneer radio preacher. Davis became a commercially successful singer of rural music before he entered politics.

His early work was in the style of early country music luminary, Jimmie Rodgers, and he was also known for recording energetic and raunchy blues tunes like, "Red Nightgown Blues.” Some of these records included slide guitar accompaniment by black bluesman, Oscar "Buddy" Woods.

During his first run for governor, opponents reprinted the lyrics of some of these songs in order to undermine Davis's campaign. In one case, anti-Davis forces played some of the records over an outdoor sound system only to give up after the crowds started dancing, ignoring the double-entendre lyrics.

Davis until the end of his life never denied or repudiated those records. He is associated with several popular songs, most notably "You Are My Sunshine,” which was designated an official state song of Louisiana in 1977. He claimed that he wrote the song while attending graduate school at LSU, but research indicates he bought it from another performer.

The practice of buying songs from their composers was a common practice during the 1930s through the 1960s as some writers in need of cash often sold tunes to others. "You Are My Sunshine" was ranked #73 on CMT's 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music in 2003. Until his death, Davis insisted that he wrote the song. In any case, it will forever be associated with him.

Davis became the popular "singing governor" who often performed during his campaign stops. While governor, he had a #1 hit single in 1945 with "There's a New Moon Over My Shoulder.”

Davis recorded for Decca Records for decades and released over 40 albums. A number of his songs were used as part of motion picture soundtracks, and Davis himself appeared in half a dozen films, one with the popular entertainers Ozzie and Harriet.

Members of Davis' last band included Allen "Puddler" Harris of Lake Charles, who had also been an original pianist of Ricky Nelson.

Davis died in 2000 at age 101.

Here, Davis sings “You Are My Sunshine”

On this day in 1901 — 120 years ago — Vice President Theodore Roosevelt gave us one of the most famous entries in our national lexicon: “Speak softly and carry a big stick”

On this day in 1901 — 120 years ago — Vice President Theodore Roosevelt gave us one of the most famous entries in our national lexicon.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” Roosevelt said in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair, using a day in the heartland to help define a new role for the federal government in the world.

Four days later, President William McKinley was shot by an assassin. McKinley’s death eight days later elevated Roosevelt to the presidency.

As governor of New York, Roosevelt had used similar words in a letter to a friend, as he explained how he forced the state’s Republican leaders to abandon their support for a corrupt insurance commissioner. Roosevelt attributed the phrase, which came to refer to U.S. dominance, to a proverb he learned while on a safari in Africa.

He also added “bully pulpit,” “muck raker” and “loose cannon” to our civic lingo. “Lunatic fringe” was his characterization of a group of avant-garde artists. Speaking more softly, Roosevelt gave us “Alice blue,” a tint named for his daughter Alice, and inspired “teddy bear,” after a toymaker was moved by the president’s refusal to shoot a cub on a hunting trip.

And the term “White House”? That was his, too. It was known as the Executive Mansion until he moved in.

In William Allen Rogers's 1904 cartoon, Roosevelt's big stick is used in a recreation of an episode in Gulliver's Travels

Thanks New York Times!

Huey Long was born 128 years ago

Huey Long was born 128 years ago.

Nicknamed “The Kingfish,” Long was an American politician who served as governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935.

A Democrat, he was an outspoken populist who denounced the rich and the banks and called for "Share the Wealth." As the political boss of the state, he commanded wide networks of supporters and was willing to take forceful action. He established the political prominence of the Long political family.

Long is best known for his Share Our Wealth program, created in 1934 under the motto "Every Man a King." It proposed new wealth redistribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on corporations and individuals to curb the poverty and homelessness endemic nationwide during the Great Depression.

Long was shot a month after announcing that he would run for president. On the day of the shooting, September 8, 1935, Long was at the State Capitol attempting to oust a long-time opponent, Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy.

Judge Pavy's son-in-law, Dr. Carl Weiss, had been at the State Capitol waiting to speak to Long. He tried to see him three times to talk to him but was brushed off each time in the hallway by Long and his bodyguards.

At 9:20 p.m., just moments after the house passed the bill, Weiss approached Long for the third time and, fired a handgun at Long from four feet away, shooting him in the abdomen. Long's bodyguards returned fire, hitting Weiss 62 times and killing him.

Long, then 42 years old, was rushed to the hospital, but died two days later on September 10, 1935.

Molly Ivins was born 77 years ago today

Molly Ivins was born 77 years ago today.

A Texas newspaper columnist, populist, political commentator, humorist and author, Ivins’ writings often employed irony and satirical humor to make a very serious points. She enjoyed telling stories about the Texas Legislature, which she simply called "The Lege,” calling it one of the most corrupt, incompetent and funniest governing bodies in the nation.

In 2003, she coined the term, "Great Liberal Backlash of 2003," and was a passionate critic of the 2003 Iraq War. She is also credited with applying the nicknames "Shrub" and "Dubdub" to George W. Bush.

An example of her writing, from her 1993 essay, "Taking a Stab at Our Infatuation with Guns," she begins by saying:

“Let me start this discussion by pointing out that I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.

“As a civil libertarian, I of course support the Second Amendment. And I believe it means exactly what it says: ‘A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’

“Fourteen-year-old boys are not part of a well-regulated militia. Members of wacky religious cults are not part of a well-regulated militia. Permitting unregulated citizens to have guns is destroying the security of this free state. I am intrigued by the arguments of those who claim to follow the judicial doctrine of original intent. How do they know it was the dearest wish of Thomas Jefferson's heart that teen-age drug dealers should cruise the cities of this nation perforating their fellow citizens with assault rifles?”

In 1999, Ivins was diagnosed with stage III inflammatory breast cancer. The cancer recurred in 2003 and again in late 2005. In January, 2006, she reported that she was again undergoing chemotherapy.

Ivins died at her Austin home in hospice care on January 31, 2007 at age 62.

On her illness, she wrote: “Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that."

On this day — 53 years ago — the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago

On this day — 53 years ago — the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago.

I was 20 years old, a college journalism student working for WIS-TV News in Columbia, S.C. Somehow, I convinced the station to send me to Chicago to cover the convention with my boss, Jim Covington.

The coming week would change my life, not to mention get me out of college a year early. After Chicago, the University of South Carolina journalism school gave me a full year’s credit for the one week experience.

As the Democratic National Convention got underway in Chicago, thousands of antiwar demonstrators took to Chicago's streets to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

An antiwar faction led by Senators Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) and George McGovern (D-South Dakota) advocated unconditionally halting the bombing of North Vietnam; negotiating a mutual withdrawal of U.S. and North Vietnamese forces from South Vietnam; encouraging the Saigon regime to open negotiations with the National Liberation Front; the acceptance of a coalition government; and the reduction of U.S. combat operations in the South.

The other faction endorsed the Johnson administration's handling of the war, applauding the president's efforts to scale down U.S. commitment and begin peace talks.

During the four-day convention — the most violent in U.S. history — police and National Guardsmen clashed with protesters outside the International Amphitheater, and hundreds of people, including innocent bystanders, were beaten by the Chicago police.

The violence even spilled into the convention hall, as guards roughed up delegates and members of the press, including CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace, who was punched in the face.

On August 29, Humphrey secured the nomination and the convention ended.

The convention opened my eyes in many ways. I was in S.C. Gov. Robert McNair's hotel suite when Humphrey selected Edmund Muskie as his running mate, overlooking McNair.  The young South Carolina governor had been tainted by his deceptions involving the Orangeburg Massacre and its cover-up.

I also was later in a small room with Humphrey — always the "happy warrior" on television — cursing up a storm. I couldn't believe I was seeing this happen. It was one wild, “coming of age” week.

In the convention's aftermath, a federal commission investigating the convention described one of the confrontations as a "police riot" and blamed Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for inciting his police to violence.

Nevertheless, eight political activists, called the "Chicago Eight,” were arrested on charges of conspiring to incite the violence, and in 1969 their trial began in Chicago, sparking new waves of protests in the city.

We were using a very heavy Auricon 16mm film camera that summer to shoot footage in the streets of Chicago. One day upon going out, I saw a Japanese video crew with a small portable Sony Portapak, the first portable video system ever made. It’s light-weight made a huge impression on me. A few years later, I bought one and launched my own career in video.

Also working in the Chicago streets that summer was Haskell Wexler, the late cinematographer. He was shooting Medium Cool, which was released a year later. It starred Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill and Harold Blankenship and took place during the convention.

It was notable for Wexler's use of cinema vérité-style documentary filmmaking techniques, as well as for combining fictional and non-fictional content. That film became a vital part of my own film education.

In 2003, Medium Cool was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

The year 1968 was an amazing time to be 20 years old. I feel lucky to have experienced the 1968 convention and all the other now historical events of that remarkable year. Looking back, it was clearly the most significant year of my life. It was the time I came of age.

In the picture below, taken on the opening night of the convention 53 years ago, is (left to right), me, Jim Covington, Don Fowler (later chairman of the National Democratic Party from 1995-97) and political journalist, Lee Bandy.

Chicago 1968: The Whole World is Watching

Crosby, Still and Nash perform "Chicago"

My friend, Jim Covington, and I were reminiscing about attending the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He told me an interesting story that I had never heard before.

Security was almost non-existent in the 1960s. The convention credentials we were issued back then were one of the early uses of embedded data on a large scale. To get into the convention, we were issued plastic ID cards.

As we entered the convention floor, we stuck the end of the card into a reader to verify that it was valid. Obviously, the data on it didn’t include the user’s name because we traded and borrowed cards to freely enter the convention. Like, I said, security was very weak in those days.

When Jim returned home to Columbia, South Carolina, he had his convention card in his wallet. He encountered a new card-operated electronic gate at the Columbia Hospital, one of the first in the city to have such technology.

He didn’t have a card to open the gate, so he stuck the convention card into the hospital gate machine. He was surprised when it opened. Apparently, the data on those cards was very, very basic.

It would be another year, before the magnetic stripe credit card was invented.

In 1969, Forrest Parry, an IBM engineer, had the idea of securing a piece of magnetic tape, the predominant storage medium at the time, to a plastic card base. He became frustrated because every adhesive he tried produced unacceptable results. The tape strip either warped or its characteristics were affected by the adhesive, rendering the tape strip unreadable.

After a frustrating day in the lab trying to find the right adhesive, he came home with several pieces of magnetic tape and several plastic cards. As he walked in the door at home, his wife Dorothea was ironing clothing.

When he explained the source of his frustration: inability to get the tape to "stick" to the plastic in a way that would work, she suggested that he use the iron to melt the stripe on. He tried it and it worked.

The heat of the iron was just high enough to bond the tape to the card.

The credit card was soon invented.

Life got far more difficult after that.

Police and demonstrators clash at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

Photo by Les Sintay

Earl Long, the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, was born 126 years ago

Governor Earl Long of Louisiana with Blaze Starr at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Earl Long, the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, was born 126 years ago.

Long was the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms. The red hot poppas tag referred to his stump-speaking skills. He served as governor from 1939 to 1940, 1948 to 1952, and 1956 to 1960.

Long was well known for eccentric behavior, leading some to suspect that he suffered from bipolar disorder. In his last term in office his wife, Blanche Revere Long (1902–1998), and others attempted to remove him on the grounds of mental instability.

For a time, Long was confined to the Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, but his legal adviser, Joseph A. Sims, was said to have "rescued" Long from the institution. Long was never formally diagnosed with any mental illness.

Commentators have speculated that political opposition may have led the effort to prove him mentally incompetent, including his wife, who resented his connection with Blaze Starr.

A.J. Liebling, the New Yorker writer, told Long’s story in The Earl of Louisiana.

Here, Jay Chavalier performs “The Ballad of Earl K. Long”