Anika Begay
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson delivers his inaugural speech on stage before the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center on Thursday in Chicago.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago all week, bringing you the latest on the Democratic National Convention.
The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago from Monday, August 19 to Thursday, August 22.
➡️ NPR’s full coverage of the 2024 elections
How to watch
NPR will broadcast live video from the United Center each night of the convention starting at 9 p.m. ET.
On Wednesday and Thursday nights, NPR’s politics team will host feature stories and analysis throughout the evening.
The History of the DNC in Chicago
Chicago has hosted numerous party conventions: the most recent was the DNC in 1996, and perhaps the most notable was the DNC in 1968.
As NPR editor and correspondent Ron Elving says, “Chicago ’68 has repeatedly been evoked as the epitome of a disaster akin to the sinking of the Titanic or the stock market crash of ’29.”
At the time, President Lyndon Johnson had announced that he would not run for reelection, and Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was then left to battle for the nomination with anti-war Senator Eugene McCarthy.
In 1968, huge crowds of demonstrators gathered in Chicago for the DNC, protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and calling for racial equality and an end to poverty.
Protesters and police eventually clashed, and violent images were broadcast on TV across the country.
But beyond the convention venue, 2024 saw several echoes of 1968. (And not just in the political world: Both years also saw new Planet of the Apes (Movies, the Summer Olympics, and U.S. moon missions, as NPR’s Rachel Treisman points out.)
In April, historian Keith Orejel summed up the situation in a post on X, formerly Twitter:
“I mean, okay, Columbia has riots and there’s widespread anti-war activism, it could be a coincidence. But there’s a guy named Robert Kennedy running for president and the [Democratic National Convention] it’s in Chicago. Like, it’s a little bit?”
A few months later we had another parallel to 1968: President Biden announced he would not run for the nomination.
But as the shadow of 1968 looms over this week’s convention, especially in regards to protesters and security, the convention itself is more of a formality than it was in 1968: We know who the nominee will be.
➡️ It’s official: Kamala Harris becomes the Democratic nominee for president in 2024
➡️ Harris chooses Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate
Real-time updates from the convention
Join NPR’s live blog starting Monday for the latest updates, analysis, fact-checking and color; listen and watch NPR’s special coverage on many public radio stations.
➡️ NPR’s full coverage of the 2024 elections
