Rennie Davis, Chicago Seven activist, dead at 80
By AP reporter article
Activists Jerry Rubin (left), Abbie Hoffman (center), and Rennie Davis speak with the press during a recess in their trial. The three are facing charges for conspiring to start the riots that tore through Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention
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CHICAGO - Rennie Davis, one of the
Chicago Seven activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that turned violent, has died. He was 80.
Davis died on Tuesday of lymphoma at his home in
Berthoud, Colorado, his wife, Kirsten Liegmann, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Rennie Davis, one of the "Chicago Seven" activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that turned violent, has died. He was 80.
Some 3,000 anti-war demonstrators clashed with police and Illinois National Guardsmen on Aug. 28, 1968, near the convention. Police clubbed demonstrators and conducted mass arrests. An investigative commission later described the clash as a “police riot.” Richard Schultz remembers exactly where he was on the evening of Aug. 28, 1968. Along with colleagues from the U.S. Attorney’s office, he was at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo, watching a riot stemming from the Democratic National Convention. NBC 5’s Phil Rogers reports.
Davis and four co-defendants Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and David Dellinger were convicted of conspiracy to incite a riot during the Chicago Seven trial in 1969 and 1970. A federal appeals court overturned the convictions, citing errors by U.S. District Judge Julius Hoffman.
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How Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Learned to Identify with Bobby Seale for ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ IndieWire 1/29/2021
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” follows eight men who protested the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Months after the convention, a new administration led by President Richard Nixon charged the men with crossing state lines with the intent to incite riots. The infamous, months-long trial became known as the trial of the Chicago 7 but initially, there was an eighth defendant.
That was Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, portrayed in Sorkin’s film by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and his courtroom experience was far worse than any of his peers. As the sole Black defendant, Seale was treated by judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) with unmistakable prejudice, including a disturbing moment when he ordered Seale to be bound, gagged and shackled to his chair.