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

(Box 65). The immediacy of the television broadcasts lent a desperate tone to thetelegrams. “For Gods sake stop this havoc and massacre in Chicago [sic],” MarjorieSatthoff pleads to Johnson on Friday 30 August (Box 65). This kind of emotionalresponse to the violence repeats later in the week as posted letters start to flood the WhiteHouse mail room.The emotion is intense. Like Satthoff and the Nyes’ telegrams, some missivesplead with the Johnson administration and the Democratic Party to end the police attackson demonstrators. For example, Lois Malott of Spokane, Washington, begs the President“in the name of American decency stop the brutity [brutality] in Chicago” (telegram, Box65). Other writers attempt to scold the President and shame him into action. This tactic isused by Florence Nislow, who writes, “It is an utter disgrace that peaceful demonstratorsshould be beaten senseless” (telegram, Box 65). Similarly, a telegram from AlbertaAnderson of California reads “The Chant of the Chicago Demonstrators ‘the whole worldis watching’ sincerely hope you were watching . . . investigate fully the sickeningexample of police brutality denial of constitutional rights [sic]” (Box 65).The word “brutality” is repeated by many of the writers, emphasizing theirsurprise and horror at the violence. Again and again they mention the demonstrators’chant of “the whole world is watching,” identifying themselves as witnesses to the plightof the protesters. Sixteen-year-old Roger Light, who watched the Convention ontelevision, writes that he “was crying when [he] saw the police force of Chicago—breaking the skulls of people, hitting girls, smashing peaceful demonstrators” [originalemphasis]. Implicated as a witness, he later reminds Johnson that “the whole world is192