Take A Look Back at Previous Democratic National Conventions in Chicago

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This week is hardly the first time Chicago has played host to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) – it’s actually the 27th time the city will host a political convention, and the 12th time it will host the Democrats.

The first time Chicago held the DNC was back in 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, when the Democratic Party was sharply divided among Democrats who supported the war and those who opposed it. The most recent DNC held in Chicago was in 1996, when President Bill Clinton was nominated for reelection and the delegates infamously danced the “Macarena.”

As the city gears up to welcome an anticipated 50,000 visitors this year, closing streets and readying its police officers, take a look back at a few historical images from the Chicago History Museum that document three of the previous DNCs held in Chicago.

1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is Nominated for President

In 1932, the convention was held at Chicago Stadium (which was demolished in 1995) on the Near West Side. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was governor of New York at the time, received the nomination on the fourth ballot, finally beating out former New York governor Al Smith and Speaker of the House John Nance Garner after California delegates agreed to back him. Garner became his vice president. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt promised a “New Deal for the American people.”

1956: A Young Massachusetts Senator Vies for VP

In 1956, the DNC took place at the International Amphitheater, a South Side arena not far from the Union Stockyards that was demolished in 1999. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, who was also the nominee four years prior, secured the nomination on the first ballot. At this convention, a not particularly well-known, first-term Senator from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy threw his hat in the race for the vice presidential nomination. In the end, Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee beat him, but the convention gave Kennedy a national stage that would benefit him in four years’ time, when he won the nomination for president.

1968: A Turbulent Convention

The infamous 1968 DNC also took place at the International Amphitheater. Months prior, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection. Mayor Richard J. Daley established a massive police presence, called in the Illinois National Guard, and set up barbed wire fences around the convention center – giving the convention an atmosphere more like a battlefield and less like a party. The mood on and off the convention floor was tense throughout the week. The Democratic Party was divided between those in support of the war in Vietnam and those opposed to it, among other internal debates that often got ugly. CBS reporter Dan Rather was grabbed by security guards and roughed up after trying to interview a delegate. Vice President Hubert Humphrey secured the nomination. But the public’s attention would also turn to other parts of the city as protestors held various demonstrations. Both the Chicago Police Department and Illinois National Guard used excessive force against protestors, firing tear gas, beating people, and arresting them in Grant Park, Lincoln Park, and in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue. A later study of the violence called the Walker Report found that there was “unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence on many occasions.”