Chicago, 1968

Nicolas W. Proctor

Description

In August 1968, Democrats gather at their National Convention in Chicago to debate a platform for a deeply divided party. Factions are split over issues such as civil rights, infrastructure, and the war on poverty—not to mention the war in Vietnam. Meanwhile, crowds of protesters descend upon the city. Impassioned antiwar demonstrators plan sit-ins and marches, while the absurdist Yippies, determined to make a mockery of the convention, intend to nominate a pig for president. Journalists flood the area to cover the stories of the delegates and protesters. Over the course of this game, players will develop a better understanding of the complexities of the social and cultural tumult that has come to be known as "the Sixties."

Sujets

• 20th Century
• Histoire
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: The University of North Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781469672373
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

CHICAGO, 1968
REACTING TO THE PAST is an award-winning series of immersive role-playing games that actively engage students in their own learning. Students assume the roles of historical characters and practice critical thinking, primary source analysis, and argument, both written and spoken. Reacting games are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum, from first-year general education classes and discussion sections of lecture classes to capstone experiences, intersession courses, and honors programs.
Reacting to the Past was originally developed under the auspices of Barnard College and is sustained by the Reacting Consortium of colleges and universities. The Consortium hosts a regular series of conferences and events to support faculty and administrators.
Note to instructors: Before beginning the game you must download the Gamemaster s Materials, including an instructor s guide containing a detailed schedule of class sessions, role sheets for students, and handouts.
To download this essential resource, visit https://reactingconsortium.org/games , click on the page for this title, then click Instructors Guide.
CHICAGO, 1968
Policy and Protest at the Democratic National Convention
Nicolas W. Proctor

The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
2022 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover illustration: Young Hippie Standing in Front of a Row of National Guard Soldiers, Across the Street from the Hilton Hotel at Grant Park, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 29, 1968 . Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Courtesy Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4696-7070-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4696-7237-3 (e-book)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NICOLAS W. PROCTOR received his PhD from Emory University and is a Professor of History at Simpson College, where he has served as department chair and director of the first-year program. He has received all three of the college s major faculty awards: the Faculty Award for Campus Leadership in 2016, the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006, and the Faculty Research Award in 2003.
After completing a traditional monograph, Bathed in Blood: Hunting and Mastery in the Old South , he reoriented his research to fit the needs of a teaching institution and focused on writing historical role-playing games. He has published two of these with Reacting to the Past: Kentucky, 1861: Loyalty, State, and Nation , which he wrote with Margaret Storey, and Forest Diplomacy: Cultures in Conflict on the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1757 .
To help game authors, he wrote a Game Designer s Handbook . He also currently chairs the Reacting Consortium s editorial board, which oversees the development of hundreds of games. He is working on a game about the Reconstruction era in Louisiana after the Civil War. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his family, many pets, a print shop, lots of books, and too many Legos.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Brief Overview of the Game
Prologue from Two Perspectives
I. Welcome, Democrats!
II. Journey to the Festival of Life
Basic Features of Reacting to the Past
Game Setup
Game Play
Game Requirements
Counterfactuals
2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Chronology
The Unraveling of the Democratic Party
Johnson s Great Society
The War in Vietnam
1968 Riots
The Democratic Presidential Candidates of 1968
The Antiwar Movement
The Republicans Pick Nixon
Daley Fortifies Chicago
Fight over Credentials
Prelude of Violence
3. THE GAME
Major Issues for Debate
Domestic Policy
Vietnam Policy
Presidential Nomination
Rules and Procedures
The Pledge of Allegiance
Rules for Delegates
Rules for Protesters
Rules for Journalists
Objectives and Victory Conditions
Basic Outline of the Game
Setup Session: Background and Context
Throughout the Convention
Before the First Game Session
Part 1: Welcome and Debate on Domestic Policy
Part 2: First Protest
Part 3: Keynote and Domestic Policy Vote
Part 4: Second Protest
Part 5: Debate and Vote on Vietnam
Part 6: Third Protest
Part 7: Debate and Balloting on the Party Nominee
Debriefing: Election of 1968
Assignments
Delegates and Protesters
Journalists
Different Sorts of Stories
4. ROLES AND FACTIONS
Delegates
Johnson Loyalists
Doves
Hawks
Civil Rights Activists
Moderates
Protesters
Yippies
Pacifists
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Black Activists
Indeterminates
Journalists
Television Reporters
Print Reporters
Underground Journalists
5. CORE TEXTS
Corporation Counsel of the City of Chicago
Biographical Notes Regarding Radical Leaders, September 6, 1968
Abbie Hoffman
Media Freaking, August 27, 1968
Richard Nixon
Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination, August 8, 1968
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
Kerner Report Excerpts, February 29, 1968
Robert Kennedy
Book and Author Luncheon, February 8, 1968
David Harris
The Assumptions of the Draft, 1968
Akmed Lorence
Transcript, 1967
Lyndon B. Johnson
Remarks upon Creating a Department of Transportation, October 15, 1966
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale
Black Panther Ten Point Plan, 1966
Casey Hayden and Mary King
Sex and Caste, 1966
Lyndon B. Johnson
Peace without Conquest, April 7, 1965
Students for a Democratic Society
Port Huron Statement, 1964
George Wallace
Inaugural Address, January 14, 1963
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Domino Theory, April 7, 1954
Appendix: Additional Roles
Selected Bibliography
Notes
Acknowledgments
Credits
CHICAGO, 1968
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE GAME
On August 26, 1968, delegates to the Democratic National Convention gathered in Chicago to decide upon the details of their platform and to nominate a candidate for president, but their party was deeply divided. They disagreed about domestic policy and the war in Vietnam. Members of the party s liberal contingent generally supported continued emphasis on civil rights and an end to the war. Meanwhile, conservative Democrats-particularly those from the South-argued the opposite. Given Alabama governor George Wallace s departure from the party and the announcement of his presidential candidacy as an Independent, the conservative wing was hard to ignore. Each of these groups sought to win over the moderate center of the party.
As party delegates debated policy in Chicago s International Amphitheatre, crowds of protesters descended upon the city to have their voices heard. Many lacked firm political convictions, but others were dedicated and experienced political activists. Antiwar protesters planned to use the methods of the civil rights movement-sit-ins and protest marches-to bend the party to their will. It was unclear how well they would work with the absurdist Yippies, who, determined to make a mockery of the Convention, intended to nominate a pig for president. Other, more militant, protesters saw the unrest in Chicago as the seedbed for true revolution. They saw the entire system as corrupt, so they welcomed the wrath of the Chicago Police Department; they hoped to show the American people the corruption of their ruling institutions.
Journalists flooded the city to cover the stories created by delegates and protesters. Many were professional, mainstream journalists who worked for big city dailies like the New York Times , established news magazines like Time , and television networks like CBS. The potential for chaos drew less mainstream, underground journalists like flies to honey.
Over the course of this game, as a result of the interactions between these different agendas and points of view, players will develop a better understanding of the complexities of the social and cultural tumult that has come to be known as the Sixties.
PROLOGUE FROM TWO PERSPECTIVES
The following vignettes ask you to imagine yourself in Chicago at the beginning of the opening of the Democratic Convention. The first is from the point of view of one of the straightlaced convention delegates. The second is told by a young and recently radicalized protester.
I. Welcome, Democrats!
The taxi drivers are on strike, so you, along with dozens of other delegates to the Democratic National Convention, board a charter bus in front of Chicago s massive Conrad Hilton Hotel. You are thrilled to be staying in the same hotel as most of the major candidates. Several have booked entire floors for their staff and supporters. Eugene McCarthy is on the fifteenth. Hubert Humphrey is way up on the twenty-sixth. He s the vice president, so you guess this makes sense.
You appreciate the attention to security. Police officers are everywhere. You have seen the silhouettes of federal agents on the roof and dark-suited men prowling the corridors of the hotel. Apparently, photographers have been warned not to take pictures through open windows lest they be mistaken for snipers. That seems excessive, but given what happened to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedy boys, maybe not.
In anticipation of the Convention, Mayor Daley spent over $500,000 sprucing up his city. You see evidence of this in the gleaming silver paint on the guardrails as your bus speeds along the Dan Ryan Expressway, but there is no covering up the dingy, high-rise public housing to either side as you ride south toward Chicago s International Amphitheatre-the site of the Convention itself.
As you drive past a building with smoke stains above several boarded-up windows, your seatmate, a taciturn delegate from Iowa, looks concerned. In the wake of King s assassination, Chicago s south side was wracked by forty-eight hours of rioting, which some prefer to call an uprising. Many buildings were set on fire. When firefighters responded, some of them were shot at. In response, Mayor Daley issued a shoot to kill order to police. During the r