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“Identify them by their garb.”

The Democratic party arrived at its 1968 convention in Chicago torn apart by the Vietnam war and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. As delegates and protestors arrived in Chicago in late August 1968, the Chicago American newspaper published a guide to the “cast of characters” converging on the city. Illustrating student supporters of Eugene McCarthy, activists identified with the National Mobilization Against the War (the “Mobe”), liberal Democrats opposed to the Johnson Administration, hippies, Yippies, apolitical greasers, and outlaw bikers, the guide identified political attitudes through stereotypes of dress and hair style. The American failed to note any African Americans among the dissenting delegates and demonstrators.


Source: Bruce Darrow, Chicago American, August 22, 1968—American Social History Project.