More Than 7

The stress and tension that had been building for days, weeks, and months between anti-Vietnam war activists and the Chicago authorities finally ruptured. Thousands of agitated protesters stared at thousands of angry police officers.

By Wednesday, August 28, 1968, Grant Park was filled with 15,000 activists protesting the Vietnam War. Tension increased by the minute and soon hundreds of policemen and National Guardsmen surrounded the protesters.

On August 26, 1968, activists rallied throughout the city. Most of the day was peaceful as people shared food and meditated. But on Tuesday, August 27, National Guard troops drove barbed wire-covered Jeeps into Chicago, agitating the protestors.

Activist groups from all over the country descended on Chicago in the days before the Democratic National Convention. Their methods for protest varied, but they all shared the same goal: to end the Vietnam War. By the start of the convention, tens of thousands of protesters had arrived.

As soon as the Democratic National Convention was scheduled for August 26 through 29, 1968, activist groups around the country began organizing large protest rallies to descend on Chicago that same week. It seemed  the authorities were preparing for an all-out war with 12,000 police officers, 5,000 Illinois National Guardsmen, and 6,000 federal troops assembled.