Julian Bond helped the Democratic Party open its doors and eyes
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Julian Bond talks with other members of the Georgia delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Credit: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images
In 1968, Georgia state Rep. Julian Bond led a new guard of progressives to claim their place in the Democratic Party and shine daylight on issues of poverty and racism.
Why it matters: The Democratic National Convention returns to Chicago on Monday for only the second time since that consequential convention, which took place during one of the most politically turbulent times in the country's history and helped nudge the divided party to become more diverse and progressive.
The big picture: The 1968 convention was marked by a divisive floor fight over the party's nominee and violent protests outside the convention center's doors.
- In the months leading up to the DNC, nationwide unrest boiled over, with the bombshell announcement that Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson would not seek re-election, followed by the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Democratic presidential frontrunner Robert F. Kennedy.
- As a DNC divided by candidates' stances on the Vietnam War commenced, thousands of activists gathered outside in a protest that led to a clash with police and later the historic prosecution of a group known as the "Chicago Seven."
Zoom in: Inside, two camps battled to serve as Georgia's delegates.
- The old guard loyal to segregationist Gov. Lester Maddox represented the more conservative wing of the Democratic party.
- And a group of Black civil rights and antiwar activists and younger white progressives advocated for social change.
The 28-year-old Bond, who had become a celebrity among anti-war activists after fellow Democrats blocked him from being seated in the Georgia General Assembly two years earlier, rallied the new guard.
- They successfully formed a diverse counter-delegation to mount a floor challenge against Georgia's conservative wing.
The intrigue: Ted Warshafsky, an anti-war lawyer and member of the Wisconsin delegation, nominated Bond from the floor to serve as the party's nominee for vice president.
Yes, but: The nomination was largely symbolic; Bond, Bond, whose memorable interview with CBS' Dan Rather called for more attention to the war and social issues, was seven years too young to serve as vice president.
- Party leaders prevailed and Edmund Muskie of Maine was nominated to join Hubert Humphrey's presidential ticket.
The big picture: The convention floor clash spurred the party to rethink how it nominated presidential picks and established Bond, who would later lead the NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center, as a power player in the Civil Rights Movement and Georgia politics.
Bottom line: More than half a century later, Democrats will gather in Chicago again, amid a political landscape that includes divisions over how to handle an overseas war, the recent attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, a Kennedy running, and an incumbent president who dropped his re-election bid as a new generation of Democratic leadership emerges.