Chaos at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago

Chaos at the 1968 Democratic Chicago Convention

The convention of 1968 was held during a year of riots, political turbulence, and mass civil unrest. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of that year inflamed racial tensions to an unprecedented level. King assassination riots in more than 100 cities followed and marked the end of the civil rights movement.[3][4] The convention also followed the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on June 5 Kennedy's assassination derailed the convention, paving the way for Humphrey. Both Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota opposed the Vietnam War and had been running for the Democratic nomination at the time. The Humphrey–Muskie ticket, while competitive, failed to unite liberals and attract anti-war voters. They would be defeated in the presidential election by the "silent majority" Republican ticket of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.