Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial Flashcards
Chicago Seven Year(s)
1969-1970
Baby Boom and the Suburbs
After WWII, people came home and had a lot of kids that became the baby boom, population exploded. Suburbs began to be built, starting with Levittown, as a cheap way to move families out of the city.
LBJ, the Great Society, and Vietnam
LBJ was very sympathetic to civil rights, wanted to be the next FDR. The US got mired in the Vietnam war, and his popularity got a lot worse.
Port Huron Statement
Written by Tom Hayden while in jail after a protest, it called for great racial, political, and social change. It became the main document of the SDS.
Tom Hayden
Inspired by college student protests, he founded Students for a Democratic Society with 35 others, and was a freedom rider who challenged segregation. He was an organizer of the Chicago protest and was tried.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
The SDS helped lead and support student movements on campuses, especially anti-war movements.
The New Left
Challenged the establishment over issues of alienation, women’s rights, anti-war, anti-materialism, civil rights, etc. Different than the old left that focused on unionization, the new left was mostly youth.
The Counterculture
many youth and college age people rejected social norms in terms of clothing, language, appearance, sexual behavior, and drug use.
Summer of Love
1967, it started in Ashbury, San Francisco. Young people of the counterculture descended on San Francisco and realized they were part of a movement, buoyed by the city’s music, and decided to change America.
Communes
People who were unrelated would create communes and communities where they lived together, raised children together, and had looser family formats.
1968
Many political events: The north Vietnamese Tet Offensive, LBJ does not run for reelection, MLK and RFK are assassinated, Columbia University protests, and more. Tensions in the US are very high and it seems to be splitting apart.
Tet Offensive
On the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, North Vietnam stages a major offensive attacking 100 towns and villages simultaneously.
MLK and RFK Assissinations
Both supporters of civil rights and progress, they were assassinated within a year of each other, leading to huge protests and riots from African Americans and the youth.
Yippies
Youth International Party, its members were primarily youth who were cultural radicals. They protested the institution, and performed large antics. Leaders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin organized the Chicago protest and wanted a festival of life.
The Mobe
The National Mobilization to end the War was primarily youth, but wanted to gain political power to end the war in Vietnam. Worked with Yippies to plan the protest.
Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was primarily African Americans who wanted civil rights and an end to police violence. Bobby Seale went to Chicago to give a speech but did not do any planning.
Mayor Richard Daley
Chicago’s democrat mayor who valued law, order, and the police. He told the police involved in the riot to shoot if provoked. He denied protestors permits and prepared the police force with ammunition and troops. Was also heard shouting antisemitic comments at the convention.
Abbie Hoffman
Leader of the Yippie party, he was arrested for having F* written on his forehead, and was heard by undercover police to have said he was going to f* up the police and the convention.
Jerry Rubin
A member of the Yippies, he was heard to have yelled “kill the pigs, kill the cops” by an undercover cop, and was tried for conspiracy.
Bobby Seale
Founder of the Black Panther Party, he was asked to speak in Chicago and was tried despite not being an organizer. He was denied a lawyer and chance to represent himself, then tied up and gagged in front of the court. He was eventually removed from the case.
Ramsey Clark
LBJs Attorney General, he chose not to prosecute after the protests because he felt it was a police riot. He was called to the stand but his testimony was ruled inadmissible because it broke executive privilege, which was false.
William Kunstler
An ACLU lawyer famous for defending radicals, he represented the defendants and was very antagonized and antagonistic towards Judge Hoffman.
Judge Julius Hoffman
73 years old, he attended law school before WWI. He was known as a moderate judge, but there was a clear generation gap. He frequently refused the defense when they tried to do things, and ordered Seale bound and gagged for exercising his right to a lawyer.
Voir Dire (Chicago)
Defense asked about ties to law enforcement, they wanted to ask questions that would reveal possible sympathy to youth ideals but the judge refused. Two men and 8 women were selected, most middle aged and middle class. One of the youngest was dismissed after her family received a note ostensibly from the black panther party claiming she was being watched.
