A Tale of Two Democratic Conventions

Finding A Common Thread of Racial and Social Justice in 1988 and 2024

By John McNamara

The 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) that nominated Kamala Harris for President last week brought many comparisons to conventions past.

Not many delegates, however, were looking back. Delays in getting to the convention on chartered busses and through TSA-type security checks did not diminish a feeling of exuberance and “joy” (the word of the week) building each day among 4,696 delegates who knew they were witness to a history-making nomination.

A Delegate’s Notes From Chicago

Parallels to the Chicago convention of 1968 drew the most press attention because protests against wars with direct or indirect US involvement occurred in the city where both conventions were held. Fifty-six years ago it was Vietnam. Now it is the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza. (SEE BELOW “Ceasefire Now: The Protests Outside and Inside the Convention”)

In 1968 Vietnam had set Democrats apart during the “Days of Rage” protests and what history remembers as a “police riot” against demonstrators and even delegates in Mayor Richard Daley’s Chicago. “The whole world is watching” became the chant on the streets that spilled into the convention hall. It was a year of political violence (MLK, RFK) and escalating U.S. and Vietnamese casualties in my senior year in high school. The Humphrey-Muskie ticket could not overcome the generational discord nor party divisions enough against Richard Nixon’s “law and order” rhetoric and a non-existent “secret plan” to end the war.

In Chicago last week the mentions of 1968 faded quickly. Personally, the only other convention to compare to Chicago 2024 was not the ancient history of the sixties but the 1988 DNC in Atlanta that I attended with United Auto Workers (UAW) members and New Britain allies, including Connie Wilson Collins and Emma Pierce, in the old 6th Congressional District.

Flashbacks to 1988 came on Day 1 (August 19) in a video tribute to the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his “rainbow coalition” presidential runs of 1984 and 1988. Delegates of a certain age or younger ones who know their history wept when Jackson, 82, afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, used a wheelchair to appear on stage to an emotional ovation.

In 1988, Jesse Jackson was the last candidate standing in a multi-candidate Democratic field against the eventual nominee, Governor Mike Dukakis (D-MA). The Civil Rights leader won 13 primaries and caucuses giving him 1,219 delegate votes (29.73%) in the roll call of states. That earned Jackson the podium for an address best remembered for his ending crescendo “Keep hope alive”.

“All of us – all of us who are here think that we are seated. But we’re really standing on someone’s shoulders.” Jackson began as he introduced Mrs. Rosa Parks “the mother of the civil rights movement” on stage in Atlanta on July 19, 1988. “My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won, won in my lifetime, by the blood and the sweat of the innocent,” said Jackson reciting the names and citing “the lives lost in the struggle for the right to vote.”

“As a testament to the struggles of those who have gone before; as a legacy for those who will come after; as a tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of our forefathers and mothers; as an assurance that their prayers are being answered, their work have not been in vain, and hope is eternal; tomorrow night my name will go into nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.”

Jackson, the politician, then unified the convention against trickle down Reaganomics and George H.W. Bush, exhorting Democrats to find “common ground” in support of the Dukakis nomination. He ended his White House bids that night while unknowingly laying down a marker for Barack Obama 20 years later.

Rev. Jackson was unable to speak to thank delegates last week, but U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), the pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, followed him evoking Rev. Jackson’s firebrand message of justice and peace in a statement of party values. “I need all of my neighbor’s children to be okay,” concluded Rev. Warnock in thanking Joe Biden for making all that occurred last week possible. “Poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza. I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay, because we’re all God’s children. And so let’s stand together. Let’s work together. Let’s organize together. Let’s pray together. Let’s stand together. Let’s heal the land. God bless you. Keep the faith.”

Along with tributes for Rev. Jackson, U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), the first Black and first Democratic woman to run for President in 1972, received shoutouts. Chisholm, who died in 2005, had seconded the nomination of Jackson at the 1984 DNC. Of her presidential candidacy Rep. Chisholm once said: “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people and my presence before you symbolizes a new era in American political history.”

In launching her own presidential bid in 2019 that would lead to her elevation to Vice President, Kamala Harris made a point of announcing her candidacy 47 years to the day that Shirley Chisholm announced hers. This year the November 5th election will determine whether that “new era in American history” will take its next step.

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Ceasefire Now: The Protests Outside and Inside The Convention

The question of Palestinian rights, the Hamas-held hostages and the Gaza humanitarian crisis hung over the DNC through four days of marches, protests and minor disruptions outside the United Center. The convention heard from the parents of one of the Hamas-held hostages and convened a panel discussion on Palestinian Rights and Gaza as part of the official proceedings.

The media hype comparing 1968 and 2024 protests proved to be exaggerated. According to a post-DNC police briefing, 74 arrests were made from start to finish (August 19-22). Officially, there were no injuries reported among an estimated 4,000 daily demonstrators and an army of police and Secret Service personnel. Concerns were raised by the National Lawyers Guild about detentions, but the heavy security and the well-prepared protest organizers prevented any major violence or vandalism. By contrast the televised 1968 street clashes led to 600 arrests and injuries to 219 officers and demonstrators. “I guarantee you the world was watching because everybody kept talking about 1968. However, we showed again that this was not 1968,” said Police Supervisor Larry Snelling as delegates were leaving town.

Outside the convention the “Coalition to March On the DNC” and other groups mobilized demonstrators on every day of the convention demanding a ceasefire and a halt to U.S. supplied arms to the Netanyahu-led government that. defying the Biden administration, has openly rejected longstanding U.S. policy that favors a two-state solution in the Middle East.

On Monday, August 19th, Joe Biden, showered with “Thank you Joes” in his handoff to Kamala Harris, told delegates “we’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza and bring peace and security to the Middle East. As you know, I wrote a peace treaty for Gaza. A few days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to doing that than we’ve done since October 7th. We’re working around the clock, my Secretary of State, to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now, to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war.”

Acknowledging the anti-war protestors Biden said “those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”

On Wednesday night (August 21) a humanitarian plea came from the podium ahead of Gov. Tim Walz acceptance speech with remarks from Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, the parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The United Center fell silent as the couple delivered emotional remarks on behalf of their son and 108 other hostages taken after an attack on a music festival and kibbutzim in the south of Israel. Hamas’ October 7th rampage killed 1,200 and precipitated the continuing Israeli military response causing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian casualties and destruction in Gaza.

“There is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East,” said Jon Polin. “In a competition of pain, there are no winners. In our Jewish tradition, we say: Kol adam olam umlo’o; ‘every person is an entire universe’. We must save all these universes.

“In an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region: a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza.”

As part of the official DNC proceedings, a “first-ever” panel discussion on Palestinian Rights was held in a packed daytime session at the McCormick Conference Center early in the week where constituent groups held sessions on issues and policies throughout the convention. Moderated by MN Attorney General Keith Ellison, the panelists urged an immediate change in U.S. policy to deescalate the Gaza war and meet the humanitarian crisis in accordance with U.S. and International law. Coverage of the panel discussion was provided by Democracy Now. An Associated Press story reported on the negotiations that led to the panel being added to the DNC program.

On the panel were Uncommitted Movement co-founder Layla Elabed, former Michigan Congressman Andy Levin, Dr. James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute, Democratic Party organizer Hala Hijazi, and Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric surgeon and Gaza volunteer (Doctors Without Borders) who described devastating losses and deaths among Palestinians, including children in her care.

Requests by Uncommitted and members of Congress to grant Dr. Haj-Hassan a speaking slot at the full convention were denied, a decision called “boneheaded” by Zogby, who has for years held leadership positions on the Democratic National Committee.

Jesse Jackson’s 1988 Plank On Palestinian Rights Recalled

On the same day that the convention honored Jesse Jackson, Dr. Zogby shared his own flashback to the 1988 convention, telling 2024 delegates at the panel discussion that it was Rev. Jackson who introduced a plank (Minority Report No. 12) in the Democratic Platform on the Middle East that was openly debated on the floor of the convention but later withdrawn without majority support.

At Rev. Jackson’s request Dr. Zogby, then a 43-year old campaign advisor, spoke in favor of the plank in Atlanta saying “our party has been long committed to Israeli security and peace for the Israeli people, but security and peace for Israel cannot be achieved without recognition of Palestinian rights…….Today we respond to the Palestinian people, a people whom we’ve ignored for too long. We address their concerns. We address their concerns with occupation and with exile, the violation of their basic human rights, the killings, and the beatings, and the agonizing expulsions — the daily humiliations of being a people without a state, without a home of their own.”

“Jesse Jackson made all the difference in the world because he elevated the issue,” said Zogby last week. “The only two times the word Palestine was mentioned at a Democratic convention was in 1984 and 1988.”

The forum on Palestinian rights came together the day before the convention started thanks, according to Zogby, to the protests and grassroots pressure mounted by Uncommitted and growing calls for ceasefire in Congress. “When I look at this panel today, it is not the prize,” said Zogby, saying the cause of “Democrats for a Free Palestine” was getting some traction. “The prize is a change in policy.” But he added that what is happening here is an “officially sanctioned” DNC discussion and “the Harris campaign is sending a message that we need to talk about it.”

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Connecticut Delegation Highlights – August 19-22

The Connecticut Democratic Party’s (CDP) 74-member delegation led by Governor Lamont began their 14-hour (or more) convention days at 7 a.m. sharp breakfasts in a meeting room of the Grand Sheraton Riverwalk on the Chicago River.

The CT breakfast programs included remarks from the Congressional delegation, CT electeds, Governors from NY and MD, Cabinet Secretaries Cardona and Raimondo, former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd and Political Consultant/Pundit James Carville. Constituency groups and issues forums convened during the day at the McCormick Conference Center.

Plaudits to the CDP crew — Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo, Vice Chairs Jimmy Tickey, Adrienne Billings-Smith, Secretary and 5th CD Delegate, Attorney Audrey Blondin, Executive Director Sarah Locke and Wallingford Town Councilor Sam Carmody — for assisting and supporting the delegation. The 5th CD delegates were joined at the convention by Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, Wolcott Democratic Town Chair Robert Ficeto, State Senator Rick Lopes (D-6) and Dr. Matt Blondin, among others

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John McNamara, a 5th Congressional District Delegate to DNC 2024, is an alderman from Ward 4 and the Common Council Majority Leader. He has been sharing stories and writing about local government and the community on his nbpoliticus.com blog since 2006.