Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

with a fire-cracker throwing crowd attempting to march from Lincoln Park to PoliceHeadquarters and the Conrad Hilton Hotel to protest the arrest of Mobe leader TomHayden. Again the authorities tried to prevent the demonstrators from camping, and thecrowd responded by building barricades of picnic tables, benches, and garbage cans, andthrowing rocks, bricks, and beer cans at police. The police in turn responded with tear gasand the arrests of about sixty demonstrators. Ramparts claimed that “the police actionwas so vicious that virtually the entire population of the area now saw the cops as theenemy” (“Decline” 27). By Wednesday the enraged crowd in Grant Park, just acrossMichigan Avenue from the hotel, had grown to an estimated 10,000. The “Battle ofMichigan Avenue” was about to begin.Although there was street violence the entire week, the “Battle of MichiganAvenue” on the night of 28 August was particularly powerful and performative. Not onlywas it captured by television cameras and broadcast nationally, but the footage was alsotransmitted to the convention inside the International Amphitheater, where it shocked thedelegates. Many bystanders, including dozens of reporters, were injured in the mêlée. Yetthe day started peacefully enough: after the crowd had finally won the right to stay inCity parks from an exhausted police force, Grant Park echoed with music, as Peter andMary (of the group Peter, Paul, and Mary) sang peace movement songs. Yet as the crowdcelebrated, National Guard troops quietly arrived across the street in front of the Hilton,where many of the delegates were staying. The 600 troops were armed with M-1 rifles,shotguns, gas masks, and “full battle dress” (Zaroulis 189).Wednesday was the day of aplanned and permitted rally by Mobe. Then Mobe wanted to march four miles from Grant177