Beating the Press
Why We Should Remember the Scarred Journalists of Chicago ’68
More than fifty years on from the events in the parks and streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, our collective memory of those events has been increasingly defined by Hollywood. In the first couple of years after 1968, two films were released that included scenes of their protagonists swept into the events during the ’68 DNC. Medium Cool, released in 1969 and directed by Haskell Wexler, and Prologue, from the Canadian director Robin Spry, were both shot in Chicago as the protests and violence of August 1968 unfolded. Medium Cool and Prologue both feature journalists as their main characters. In Medium Cool the character played by Robert Forster is a film cameraman for a Chicago news station. In Prologue, the character played by John Robb is a writer for an underground newspaper published in Montreal.
In the years since those films appeared, there have been no new films focusing just on the events of August 1968, but there have been seven films that have focused on the Chicago 8 conspiracy trial, the criminal trial of initially eight and then seven defendants charged with inciting a riot in Chicago. Our collective memory of the ’68 DNC is now filtered and colored by the lens of that trial. It has become the predominate narrative through which the protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention are interpreted.
The consequences of using the trial as a lens to view the 1968 events are many. One consequence is that the acts of the antiwar protestors and the acts of the police upon those protestors dominate what we see, filling the frame of our collective vision of 1968. It was protestors (protest leaders, according to the prosecutors) who were on trial, while police officers and police informants made up much of the prosecution’s witness list.
But in the streets and parks of Chicago during the DNC, the nightsticks, teargas, and mace of the police were not only directed at antiwar protestors, they were also directed at members of the press. Journalists were shoved and beaten right along with protestors; print journalists were forced to give up their notebooks; photographers had their lenses and cameras smashed and had to hand over their film.
Accounts of the events of Chicago ’68 rarely talk about the harassment, beatings, and arrests of journalists. At most, the punch that Dan Rather took on the floor of the convention when he confronted security officers or the arrest of Mike Wallace at the convention for shoving a police officer are mentioned. Why just these? Because there is dramatic video footage of these altercations. Whereas the attacks on journalists on the streets of Chicago were captured, if at all, only by still photographs, and there is simply no visual record at all of most of these violent incidents. The attacks on journalists mostly happened in darkness and have remained there.
There are several good reasons for remembering the attacks on the press. Those attacks are a sort of lever to test explanations for the violence. Why did the violence occur on the streets and in the parks of Chicago? Was it a police riot? Was it a spontaneous spasm of police violence? Were the police responding to provocation, especially insulting verbal provocation? Were the police responding to physical attacks? Were the police in the street, on the front line, responding to orders from their superior officers?
Look at the attacks on the press. Journalists were attacked, even though journalists were not verbally abusive or throwing objects at the police lines or striking out at police officers. No provocation. On Sunday and Monday, journalists were deliberately attacked, cameras were destroyed, film was seized. What’s the explanation for that? Apparently, police officers attacked the press because they did not want a record created of their actions.
Tuesday morning, August 27, 1968, in response to complaints from the publishers and presidents of news organizations, Chicago Superintendent of Police James Conlisk disseminated an order throughout the department that police officers were not to interfere with the work of journalists as long as those journalists did not violate any laws. Police officers were not allowed to demand that journalists surrender film.
Conlisk’s order was quite effective, at least for one day. On Tuesday, August 27, no journalists were attacked, even though there were numerous demonstrations and marches during the day and through Tuesday night. The police riot explanation loses explanatory power when it’s clear that the police were sufficiently in command of their actions to refrain from attacking journalists on Tuesday.
There is a certain riotous, irrational madness about police acts on Sunday and Monday — everybody gets whacked: protesters, journalists, bystanders, passers-by. But this looks more deliberate when the police are able to excise just journalists from their supposedly spontaneous spasm of violence. If a police riot is supposed to exhibit a lack of control by police officers, Chicago ’68 is not a police riot. The police were in control of who they subjected to their violence.
Aside from the explanatory value of the attacks on journalists, those who were out on the streets of Chicago doing the job of documenting and reporting what was happening and so suffered injury and arrest, deserve remembrance; they deserve that their names, acts, and lives be remembered. These are their stories.
Lawrence Green, Chicago Daily News reporter
Larry Green, as his byline ran, was caught between a police line and a group of demonstrators on Clark Street bordering Lincoln Park near midnight on Saturday, August 24, 1968. The police charged toward the demonstrators and Green fell to the ground. He scrambled to his feet, held out his press card, and shouted “Press! Press!” A police officer clubbed him in the back, while another officer said, “Fuck your press cards.”
Larry Green was a Chicago Daily News reporter from 1968 to 1977. Together with fellow Daily News reporter Rob Warden, Green exposed the workings of the “Red Squad” of the Chicago police. Members of the Red Squad were among the many undercover law enforcement and intelligence personnel among the protesters on the streets of Chicago in 1968. After the Daily News, he worked in the Chicago bureau of the Los Angeles Times for thirteen years, and then reported for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1990 to 2009. He closed his career as a reporter for injusticewatch.org.
Howard M. Berliant, Freelance photographer
Howard Berliant was on the porch of a Clark Street apartment building on Saturday, August 24, 1968. He had two cameras but no press identification. Several police officers approached and one yelled, “Get the man with the camera!” Berliant tried to retreat into the lobby of the building, but was clubbed in the head, opening a two-inch gash that required seven stitches to close.
Howard Berliant was a freelance photographer from Milwaukee, where he photographed civil rights marches led by Father James Groppi. After 1968, he continued to live in Milwaukee.
John Culhane, Newsweek reporter
Late Saturday, August 24,1968, Culhane was with a group of reporters, including Monroe Anderson, a Newsweek intern. As gassed and bloodied protestors streamed out of Lincoln Park and across Clark Street, the group huddled in a small fenced-in churchyard in front of Hermon Baptist Church. Policemen approached the group and Culhane shouted, “Press! Press!” One police officer shouted that they were from Newsweek, adding a string of obscenities. Culhane was clubbed on the back and legs as he tried to move away down the street.
John Culhane was reporting for Newsweek in August 1968, but he knew the city very well, having previously worked for the Rockford Register-Republic and the Chicago Daily News. After a few more years of news reporting, he focused on his true love — Disney — and wrote acclaimed histories of animation, Disney cartoons, special effects, and the circus. He taught courses in the history of animation at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and other colleges in New York.
Monroe Anderson, Newsweek intern reporter
As Anderson related the churchyard encounter years later, several police officers called he and Culhane out of the fenced-in yard, saying, “‘Come out of there, motherfuckers!’ . . . The police had formed a club-swinging gauntlet along the curb. Every four or five feet there was a billy club wielding cop wailing away. We were beaten from one cop to the next to the next,” Anderson wrote. He and Culhane — along with the whole Newsweek street crew — were wearing helmets. “The blows rang our bells but drew no blood,” he said.
Monroe Anderson landed his job as a Newsweek summer 1968 intern after his freshman year as a journalism student at Indiana University. He was on the staff of the National Observer in Washington, DC, an assistant editor for Ebony magazine, and then joined the Chicago Tribune, where he was a reporter and later a political columnist. He was press secretary to Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer in 1988 and 1989. He also wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times and other news organizations, and taught feature writing at Columbia College Chicago. For thirteen years he was director of station services and community affairs at WBBM-TV, where he hosted the public affairs show, Common Ground.
Charles H. Phillips, LIFE magazine photographer
Charles Phillips and LIFE reporter James K. Davis were on Clark Street about 12:30 am Sunday, August 25. Phillips had three cameras around his neck along with his press ID. A police officer told them to move onto the sidewalk and as Phillips complied, the officer struck him on the side of the head with his nightstick.
Charles Phillips began taking pictures while serving in the Army during the Korean War, and began work for LIFE after his discharge. As a LIFE photographer, he covered protests against the war in Vietnam. Later he photographed for the Smithsonian Institution and the Architectural Bureau of Indian Affairs. Phillips died in 2003.
James K. Davis, LIFE Magazine reporter
James Davis was between two parked cars on Clark Street. An officer approached and Davis pointed to the press cards pinned to his shirt. The officer clubbed Davis in the leg and then pulled his legs out from under him. Several other officers clubbed Davis as he lay between the parked cars.
The further career of James Davis is undiscovered.
Frederick DeVan, Freelance photographer
Frederick DeVan was covering the protests in Chicago on assignment for LIFE magazine. He was in Lincoln Park about 12:30 am Sunday, August 25, 1968. He was wearing press credentials on his shirt and had a helmet marked “LIFE” on the front and rear. He was with several other photographers, including Larry Fleetwood of the Manhattan Tribune, who was photographing police making an arrest. About fifteen police officers formed a circle around the photographers and told them to run. DeVan ran and someone shouted, “Get the camera, get the photographer!” A policeman broke his camera and two viewfinders with the butt of a shotgun.
During the 1960s, Fred DeVan photographed the people and events of the civil rights movement, especially the voter registration work of SNCC in Mississippi. He was at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City to cover the attempt by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to be seated as delegates. After 1968 he continued to work with LIFE and Time magazines.
Claude A. Lewis, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin reporter
Claude Lewis was walking on Clark Street at 12:40 am Sunday, August 25, 1968. He had convention credentials and a press ID around his neck. He had seen police beating a girl and stopped to make notes. A policeman stepped toward him, saying, “Give me that goddam notebook, you dirty bastard.” The police officer grabbed the notebook and clubbed Lewis four or five times on the head, knocking him to the ground. Lewis was bleeding from his head and was taken to a hospital and treated for contusions and concussion and kept in the hospital for thirty-six hours.
Claude Lewis began at Newsweek in 1953, becoming a reporter covering science, sports, and religion. As a sports reporter, Lewis met and befriended Muhammad Ali and wrote his biography. His relationship with Ali spawned a friendship with Malcolm X, and Lewis became a journalist at the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement; he covered the people and the protests and developed relationships with the leaders and heroes of the movement. In 1968, he joined the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin as a reporter and columnist. When the Bulletin ceased publication in 1982, Lewis founded the first national black weekly newspaper, The National Leader, which was published for three years. From 1985 to retirement in 2009 Lewis wrote a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Lewis died in 2017.
James Peipert, Associated Press reporter
AP reporter James Peipert was on the Michigan Avenue bridge in the early morning of Sunday, August 25, 1968. He and other journalists were ahead of a group of about 300 protestors who were approaching the bridge from the north. A police line stretched across the width of the bridge. Peipert and other journalists walked toward the police line, but when they approached some were clubbed by officers. Peipert was struck on the back of the head and then struck three times on his back.
Jim Peipert was a journalist, editor, and foreign correspondent. He worked for the Associated Press for twenty-two years, in Chicago, New York, Moscow, London, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. He then worked for twenty-one years at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, including fifteen years as national/foreign editor and seven years on the editorial board.
Duane Hall, Chicago Sun-Times photographer
Photographer Duane Hall was also in the group of journalists on the Michigan Avenue bridge in the early morning of Sunday, August 25, 1968. He had his press ID displayed in an armband and was wearing a helmet and multiple cameras. Patrolman Arthur R. Bischoff clubbed Hall on the jaw and shoulder and his cameras were broken. Bischoff was later indicted for this incident by the Cook County grand jury that heard testimony about the August 1968 disorders and indicted eight protesters (the Chicago 8), eight policemen, and an NBC producer on varied charges.
Duane Hall was a photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times in the 1960s and ‘70s. He then relocated to his native North Carolina and became a freelance photographer. He photographed the Contras in Nicaragua, the peasants in China, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions in Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and many other historic events, as well as world leaders and celebrities.
Charles Paul Pharris Sr., ABC-TV cameraman
In early afternoon, Monday, August 26, 1968, Charles Pharris was in Lincoln Park with an ABC crew and attempted to film to film the arrest of Tom Hayden when a policeman came up behind him and smashed his camera lens with his nightstick.
Charles Pharris was an aerial photographer in the US Air Force and became chief cameraman at KPRC-TV in Houston in 1956. He moved to the Atlanta Bureau of ABC News in 1964, during the civil rights movement. He covered Selma and Montgomery, church bombings and the Ku Klux Klan, the shooting of James Meredith, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. He also covered riots in Newark, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, Miami, and other cities. Since he was based in the southeast, he also covered many space launches up through the disastrous Challenger launch in 1986. He worked at ABC for thirty-seven years and died in 2014.
Walter James, ABC-TV soundman
Walter James was hit in the back with a police nightstick during the same incident in which Pharris lost his lens.
Walter James worked at ABC until 2013. He later worked for HGTV, Picture Windows, and Salt Run Productions. In 2024 he was living in Atlanta.
Don Johnson, Newsweek reporter
On Monday, August 26, 1968, around 4pm, Don Johnson was at the General John Logan statue in Grant Park, witnessing hundreds of young people swarming the statue before being driven off by police. Johnson was wearing a blue helmet and had his press credentials around his neck. In the process of clearing the hill, Johnson was pushed to the ground by a policeman. Johnson yelled “Press, press!” but the policeman struck him in the left knee with his baton. His knee was bandaged at the scene by a movement medic.
Don Johnson’s first job out of college was as a police reporter for the Boston Globe. On April 4, 1968, the day Rev. Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis, Don arrived in Chicago as domestic correspondent for Newsweek magazine. In 1969 he was assigned to the Newsweek Bureau in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, covering Latin America, and in 1971 was assigned to the Vietnam Bureau of Newsweek in Saigon.
Art Shay, Freelance photographer on assignment for Time magazine
Art Shay was also at the General Logan statue on Monday August 26, 1968, wearing press credentials and with four cameras around his neck. He was photographing a policeman beating a teenage girl. A second officer came up and hit the girl, then turned to Shay and swung a club at his head. Shay deflected the blow with his right hand as he yelled, “Press, press!” The officers asked Shay to hand over his film, but Shay refused.
Art Shay’s New York Times obituary said, “In more than 1,500 assignments for Life, Time, Look, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, Shay photographed famous Americans like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Hoffa, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and President John F. Kennedy. He also passionately documented the streets of his adopted hometown, Chicago.” He was also a writer and a playwright.
Brian D. Boyer, Chicago Sun-Times reporter
In the evening of Monday, August 26, 1968, Boyer attempted to cross a police line near Lincoln Park. He showed his press credentials at the police line and a police officer replied that he had never heard of press credentials, told Boyer to “move the hell out,” and shoved him with a nightstick. Boyer continued to request to cross the police line until the officer said, “I’m sick of this shit!” and arrested him. He was locked up but not charged and the Sun-Times obtained his release.
Brian Boyer was a reporter for the Sun-Times until December 4, 1969. In the early morning hours of that day, Black Panther Fred Hampton was shot to death by Chicago police while he slept. Boyer was one of the first reporters on the scene and his story about the murder scene, which cast doubt on the official account that Hampton had been shooting back at police, was buried on page 32 by his editors. He resigned immediately. He went on to report for the Detroit Free Press, WBBM-TV in Chicago, and ABC’s 20–20, among other places. During the administration of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, he was a press secretary and chief speechwriter.
Jeff Lowenthal, Freelance photographer for Newsweek
Around 9:30pm on Monday, August 26, 1968, a group of demonstrators near Wells and Division Streets were met by a group of police officers who ordered the demonstrators to return to Lincoln Park. Jeff Lowenthal took photographs of the action. He said he heard the police say “Get the cameras!” and “Beat the press!” He was struck on the arms and shoulders by police while attempting to show his press identification.
Jeff Lowenthal was a freelance photographer for most of his career, working on the staff of Newsweek from 1976 to 1986. He photographed many musicians, including Duke Ellington, Dexter Gordon, Muddy Waters, and Chuck Berry, and well-known personalities like Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and Lenny Bruce. One hundred and sixty-five of his photographs appear in the book Fleetwood Mac in Chicago (The Legendary Chess Blues Session), documenting the daylong jam session of Fleetwood Mac and Chicago blues musicians like Buddy Guy, Otis Spann, Honeyboy Edwards, and Willie Dixon.
Marv Kupfer, Newsweek reporter
Marv Kupfer witnessed the beating of Jeff Lowenthal. Kupfer had press credentials around his neck. A policeman grabbed Kupfer by the lapels and said, “Get out of here or I’ll kill you.” The policeman ripped his coat and pushed him along the sidewalk.
Marv Kupfer was a reporter for Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and the Southern Courier (Australia). He was also an adjunct professor at Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale, AZ.
Robert Black, Chicago Sun-Times photographer
Around 9:30pm on Monday, August 26, 1968, Robert Black was also on Division Street, between Clark and LaSalle. He wore a press armband and a helmet labeled “Sun-Times.” Black was photographing a group of police officers who were beating a demonstrator. A police officer came up to Black and struck him twice with his nightstick, bruising his face.
Bob Black began his photojournalism career at the Chicago Defender in 1965. He was hired by the Sun-Times in 1968 and worked there for thirty-eight years. He was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2019.
Delos Hall, CBS-TV cameraman
Delos Hall was filming the demonstration on Division Street, near Wells and LaSalle. Around 10:30pm on Monday, August 26, 1968, Hall was shooting without artificial lighting and was standing behind three policemen. Ten to twelve other police ran up behind Hall as he was filming the action. One officer hit Hall over the head with his nightstick, opening a scalp wound. Hall fell to his knees but continued filming. He was threatened by police officers but was not hit again. His 16mm film camera was clearly labeled “CBS NEWS” on both sides. His head wound required seven stitches to close. CBS and NBC showed footage shot by Hall, including the attack, at about 1:30am on Day One of the convention coverage.
Del Hall began his career in his hometown of New Orleans, as a news cameraman for WWL-TV. As the civil rights movement unfolded across the South, Hall was there filming it, getting so close to the action that he was arrested filming a sit-in at a Woolworth lunch counter. In 1966, he came to Chicago to work out of the CBS Midwest Bureau. He filmed news around the world, including the construction of the Berlin Wall and the war in Vietnam. He worked for CBS filming 60 Minutes, the CBS Evening News (with Walter Cronkite and, later, Dan Rather), and On the Road with Charles Kuralt, for which he won an Emmy in 1974.
James Stricklin, NBC-TV cameraman
James Stricklin was nearby when Del Hall was clubbed by police. Stricklin filmed the attack. One of the participating officers turned and clubbed Stricklin in the mouth, chipping a tooth. Stricklin had an NBC News badge on his jacket and told the officer he was with NBC News; the officer replied, “I don’t care.” When he turned to escape, he was jabbed in the kidneys and was forced down on the ground. He was hospitalized for two days.
James Stricklin was born in downstate Illinois. In 1964 the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. hired Stricklin to shoot footage on the rise of Chicago street gangs. That brought him to the attention of WMAQ-TV, where he worked for forty years. He died of COVID-19 on July 26, 2021, in Chicago, at age 88.
Paul Stewart Slade, Paris Match photographer
Paul Slade was on Clark Street, across from Lincoln Park, after 11pm on Monday, August 26, 1968. He observed another news photographer pushed up against a car by a policeman, who then used to nightstick to smash the photographer’s camera and strobe light. Slade ran up to photograph the scene. The same officer turned and swung his club at Slade, who ran back to the sidewalk.
Paul Slade showed up anywhere in the world there was news. He worked for Paris Match, and later Look magazine. His photos were syndicated around the world. He photographed world leaders, major sporting events, Latin American revolutions, race riots, the Berlin Airlift, and six US presidents, from Eisenhower to Carter. John Kennedy offered him the post of White House photographer, which he declined. He photographed the trial of Jack Ruby. Slade died of a heart attack in 1979, at the age of 47.
Marshall Goldberg, Manhattan Tribune photographer
Marshall Goldberg was near Paul Slade when Slade attempted to photograph a police officer attacking another news photographer. Goldberg also attempted to take a photo of the policeman. Goldberg was clubbed on the back of the head and his strobe light was broken.
Both Marshall Goldberg and the Manhattan Tribune are difficult to trace. The Tribune was probably a short-lived newspaper published in New York.
Fred T. Schnell, Freelance photographer on assignment for Time-Life
Fred Schnell was on Clark Street near Lincoln Park on Monday, August 26, 1968, around midnight. He was photographing a woman being dragged to a police squadrol. When one of the officers involved turned toward him, Schnell showed his press credentials and said, “I’m a Time-Life photographer.” The police officer knocked Schnell’s press cards and his strobe light out of his hand, and clubbed him on the back and shoulders, saying, “I don’t care who you are, get out of the street.”
Fred Schnell was the first-named plaintiff in a suit filed on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, which sought to enjoin the Chicago police from interfering with news reporters and photographers as they are going about doing their work of reporting the news: “interfering with plaintiffs’ constitutional right to gather and report news, and to photograph news events.” He was President of the Chicago Chapter of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. His photographs of rodeos over the decades with his own accompanying text are in Rodeo! The Suicide Circuit, published in 1971. He died in 1982.
Ken Regan, Freelance photographer on assignment for Time magazine
Ken Regan went into Lincoln Park around midnight on Monday, August 26, 1968, with some other journalists. He had six cameras around his neck along with his press ID card. Tear gas was fired toward Regan and the group of journalists. Then, said Regan, “One policeman chased me out into the street and hit me on the head with his riot stick. I was wearing a helmet, however, and just stunned. For the next hour, the police sporadically chased demonstrators and newsmen . . . away from the park. At one point, I ducked into a doorway. Two policemen found me there and chased me out. As I ran out, both hit me on the back with their sticks.”
Ken Regan was a very young photographer in 1968. He volunteered his services as a photographer to the Robert Kennedy campaign and covered the California primary, the funeral in St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York, and the train ride to and burial in Arlington Cemetery. He became close to the Ted Kennedy family and photographed Senator Kennedy often during the 1970s and continuing through the following decades. At the same time, Regan was becoming a trusted photographer of the most famous names in rock music. He was still a teenager when he began hanging around Fillmore East to take pictures, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Allman Brothers. He became friends with promoter Bill Graham, who introduced Regan to prominent musicians. He was the official photographer for the Rolling Stones on several tours in the 1970s, Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975, and the Live Aid concert in 1985. It was the intimacy of his photographs, the trust that his subjects placed in him, that distinguished Regan’s photography. Regan died in 2012.
P. Michael O’Sullivan, Staff photographer for Business Week
P. Michael O’Sullivan was in Lincoln Park Monday night, August 26, 1968, with three cameras and a press pass around his neck. Shortly after midnight, he photographed five police officers beating a young person. He was struck from behind by a policeman wielding a shotgun, knocking him to the ground. Another policeman joined the first. They grabbed O’Sullivan, swore at him, and searched his pockets, finding and confiscating a roll of film. They then grabbed his cameras, threatening to smash them. One officer said, “Give us your film or I’ll break your head.” O’Sullivan gave them the film from his cameras. The two officers then pushed him out of the park. The officers had removed their nameplates and refused to give their names to O’Sullivan. One of the officers was subsequently identified as Patrolman Raymond W. Blaa.
P. Michael O’Sullivan was a photographer for Life and Business Week and took well-known photographs of the Detroit riot of 1967, of riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968, and of the 1968 DNC. Later he went freelance. He traveled to Northern Ireland to document the battles between Catholics and Protestants. In 1972, he published photographs and interviews with members of the Irish Republican Army in Patriot Graves: Resistance in Ireland. The book was banned in England, as it was seen as too sympathetic to the IRA. He worked as a film producer and director in the 1970s. O’Sullivan had a serious motorcycle accident in 1982, which left him partially paralyzed and able to speak only with difficulty. He died in 2004.
James Jones and Hal Bruno, Newsweek editors
As former Newsweek reporter Monroe Anderson (see above) relates the story, after he and Newsweek reporter John Culhane were beaten by police late on Saturday, August 24, they went to Newsweek’s Chicago bureau office and were promptly yanked off the street team by their superiors. Their bosses could not believe that the police would attack journalists unprovoked, so they assumed Culhane and Anderson had done something to give the police cause to attack them. Culhane and Anderson objected to their treatment, so on Monday, August 26, 1968, James Jones, Detroit bureau chief, and Hal Bruno, Newsweek News Editor, went to see for themselves.
The two were standing on Clark Street around midnight, after the park had been cleared. Jones, dressed in a business suit and tie, and displaying press credentials. Bruno was standing on the sidewalk while fleeing demonstrators and chasing police went by. A young protestor shouted at him, “Man, the pigs have gone wild. They’re not after us, they’re after you!”
Although documents are not crystal clear on this point, it appears that Jones and Bruno observed the beating of P. Michael O’Sullivan and the seizure of his film. Also observing the altercation were Stuart and Rochelle Schulman, who had just celebrated their wedding anniversary with a dinner in Old Town. Schulman approached one of the police officers who were intimidating O’Sullivan and was struck on the head with a club by another officer. Jones was subsequently struck by by this same officer with a blow to his ribs.
Bruno noted the name of the officer from his nameplate, Ramon Andersen. Andersen was later indicted for this incident by the Cook County grand jury that indicted eight protesters and eight policemen. Ramon Anderson later sued the Schulmans, Newsweek magazine, and the two Newsweek editors for malicious prosecution; the suit was dismissed on summary judgment.
James (Jim) Clinton Jones was among the best reporters and writers ever to cover the auto industry. He was Newsweek’s Detroit bureau chief from 1955 until he retired in the late 1980s. He died in 2000 at the age of 77.
Harold Robinson “Hal” Bruno, Jr. joined the staff of Newsweek magazine in 1960, after ten years of working at various trade publications in Chicago, the City News Bureau, and Chicago’s American. At Newsweek he was a reporter, foreign correspondent, news editor, and chief political correspondent over the span of eighteen years. Bruno joined ABC News in 1978. He oversaw the ABC News election and political coverage during the 1980s and 1990s. He served as the moderator of the 1992 vice presidential debate between Dan Quayle, Al Gore, and James Stockdale. He died in 2011.
John Linstead, Chicago Daily News reporter
John Linstead was covering the police sweeps through Lincoln Park on Monday, August 26, 1968. He had a helmet and gas mask in the park but had turned those over to a driver who was headed to the Daily News offices. Shortly thereafter, Linstead saw some policemen threatening three girls in a convertible and yelled at them to stop it. Linstead was punched, pressed up against a car by the officers, and clubbed over the head. He was in the hospital for observation for thirty-six hours.
The three policemen were among the eight indicted by the Cook County grand jury; the three were Sgt. George Jurich, Patrolmen Vincent J. D’Amico, and Edward M. Becht, who, in the words of the indictment, “did willingly strike and beat and assault” Linstead in violation of his civil rights. The three police officers accused of attacking Linstead were acquitted.
After the Daily News ceased publishing in 1978, John Linstead worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a reporter and editor for twenty-nine years. After his retirement he hiked the Appalachian Trail.
Donald Jonjack, Chicago Sun-Times reporter
Donald Jonjack was at the edge of Lincoln Park on Monday August 26, 1968, shortly after midnight. The police were making their third sweep through the park when three of them approached Jonjack and told him to leave. He said that he was a Sun-Times reporter and pointed to the press ID pinned to his shirt. He was struck from behind, pushed to the ground, and clubbed several times on the back. He had bruises and temporary paralysis of his left side and was treated at a hospital.
Donald Jonjack was a reporter for the Sun-Times in the 1960s and ’70s. He also taught communications at Columbia College in Chicago. In the mid-1970s, Jonjack left Chicago for Galena, Illinois, where he edited the local newspaper and became the curator of the local museum. He died in 1996 at the age of 51.
Stephen Northrup, Washington Post photographer
Stephen Northrup was near Wells and Goethe on Monday August 26, 1968, shortly after midnight, as a group of demonstrators came by chased by police. One of the police officers ran right into Northrup was his baton raised. He did not swing his baton, but the collision knocked Northrup to the ground. Northrup and a witness who saw the collision felt it was deliberate.
Shortly thereafter Northrup was taking photographs of a policeman hitting a demonstrator who was on the ground. Police yelled “Drop the camera” and “Get him, he’s got a camera.” Northrup tried to run, but two police grabbed him and a third came up behind him and struck him on the head. Northrup fell to the ground and tried to protect his camera from damage or seizure. One officer took his strobe light, threw it into the gutter, and stomped on it. Northrup was taken to a hospital with a scalp laceration requiring five stitches to close.
Stephen Northrup’s photographic career began in 1962 when he joined United Press International (UPI) in San Francisco and continued to work with UPI in Miami and Saigon. He covered the Vietnam War in 1965 and 1966. He then joined the Washington Post for five years before moving on to Time magazine, where he was on staff for twenty years. Later in life, he returned to Vietnam to teach young Vietnamese photojournalists.
Wallace W. McNamee, Newsweek photographer
Wallace McNamee was at the corner of Wells and Schiller Streets near midnight on Monday, August 26, 1968. He was wearing a business suit and had a camera, lighting equipment, and press credentials around his neck. He was about to photograph four policemen who were attacking a protestor when another officer ran toward him with his nightstick raised. McNamee yelled “Press!” but the officer struck the flash unit on his camera. As MacNamee turned away, the officer struck him on the forearm. A second officer smashed the strobe light battery case that he carried.
Wally McNamee was a Washington Post photographer for thirteen years. In 1968 he shifted to Newsweek, where he worked for thirty years. He photographed ten presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush and the Olympic Games from 1976 to 1996. More than 100 of his photos appeared on the Newsweek’s cover. He was one of a handful of photographers who accompanied President Nixon on his 1972 trip to China. He died in 2017.
Frank Hanes, Chicago’s American photographer
Frank Hanes was near Wallace McNamee on Monday, August 26, 1968, and photographed the clubbing of McNamee. As he was doing so, he was hit from behind on the helmet he wore. Then a police officer spun him around and sprayed mace in his face. He identified himself as a journalist with the American. The policeman replied, “I don’t care who you are with.”
Frank Hanes was a photographer for Chicago’s American and later for the Chicago Tribune for many years. (Chicago’s American was an afternoon daily which was owned by the Chicago Tribune in 1968.)
Robert Jackson, Chicago’s American reporter
On Monday, August 26, 1968, around midnight, Robert Jackson was walking with police officer Stanley Robinson of Gang Intelligence. They were caught up in a confrontation between demonstrators and police. Both ran, in different directions. Jackson ran into an alley, but just five steps in he was hit on the head by a police officer behind him. Jackson fell to the ground and showed his press credentials as he tried to rise. The policeman said, “That don’t mean a damned thing to me, n**ger” and clubbed Jackson several more times. Then the policeman said, “Get your black ass out of the alley” and Jackson was able to walk away.
Robert Jackson Jr. was a reporter for Chicago’s American in the sixties and early seventies and one of the early African American reporters hired by the white-owned press. A two-time Pulitzer nominee, he ended his career as a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News. Jackson covered the civil rights movement for the American, reporting on Martin Luther King Jr. campaigns in the South and the Chicago Freedom Movement that brought King to Chicago in 1966.
John Evans, NBC-TV News reporter and Daniel Morrill, Freelance photographer
Dan Morrill was standing in the front courtyard of his home after midnight on Monday, August 26, 1968, when four policemen approached him. “What do you have a camera for?” one of them asked. Morrill replied that he was a photographer and that he lived there. The officer then maced Morrill in the face and the officers turned away. Morrill came out onto the sidewalk and shouted to the police that he wanted to take their picture. When they turned toward him, he took a flash photo.
At this point John Evans came up carrying a tape recorder labeled “NBC.” Evans captured an exchange between the officers and Morrill in which the officers demanded Morrill’s film. After some resistance, Morrill surrendered the film and the officers then struck Morrill on the head with their nightsticks.
Seeing Evans with his tape recorder, the officers turned to him, and one ripped the microphone off his recorder. Another clubbed him over the head, knocking his helmet off. Several officers then clubbed Evans over the head. Evans’s laceration required six stiches, while Morrill’s required eleven.
John Evans Grigsby began his career as a disc jockey in Fairfield, Iowa, before moving on to radio stations KSTT in Davenport, Iowa, and WYNR in Chicago. He worked as an NBC television news and anchorman in Chicago and Detroit. His work at the 1968 DNC earned him the Jacob Scher Award for excellence in documentary reporting. He was later anchorman and managing editor for KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was active in human rights and civil rights organizations in Illinois and Minnesota. He died in 1989 at the age of 53.
Daniel Drake Morrill was a freelance photographer in Chicago beginning in the 1960s. He later taught photography and aesthetics at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He died in 2008.
Robert Kieckhefer, United Press International reporter
On Wednesday, August 28, 1968, about 7:30pm, Robert Kieckhefer was behind the Southern Christian Leadership Conference mule train as it moved south on Michigan Avenue and through the intersection with Balbo. Kieckhefer was south of Balbo, against a line of police blocking further progress down Michigan, when a company of police officers came west on Balbo and turned south onto Michigan into a crowd of protestors. Kieckhefer were among those who were pressed against the line of police in front of them by the police moving into the crowd behind them. Kieckhefer was struck on the head from behind by a police nightstick. His scalp wound required five stiches.
Robert Kieckhefer joined United Press International in Chicago in 1968. He transferred to Springfield, IL, in 1971 as bureau manager, responsible for coverage of Illinois government. He returned to Chicago in 1977 as Illinois state editor and Chicago bureau manager. In that position, he directed and participated in all news coverage in Illinois and supervised five UPI bureaus.
Caleb Orr, United Press International writer (or audio staff)
As the police emerged from Balbo Drive, Caleb Orr was standing with a group of demonstrators pressed up against the facade of the Hilton Hotel on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, about 7:30pm. He was wearing a large UPI badge with other press credentials. A police officer walked around the group and sprayed them with mace.
Caleb Orr is identified as a writer or as audio staff in various sources. His subsequent life has not been traced.
Edwin B. Kerins, United Press International Radio Network reporter
Edwin Kerins may have been in the same group as Caleb Orr in front of the Hilton Hotel on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, about 7:30pm. He had a large UPI badge, a yellow press ID card on his shoulder, and was carrying a tape recorder labeled UPI. Kerins was interviewing a young woman when a police officer walked over to him and sprayed mace in his face.
Before joining UPI Radio, Edwin Kerins was a show host at WNYC in New York. He worked at UPI for twenty-five years. He was the New York Bureau Chief for UPI Radio when he left in 1992. He then worked two years the Radio Division of the Wall Street Journal. He died in 2012.
Winston S. Churchill II, London Evening News reporter and James Auchincloss
Winston S. Churchill II, reporting for the London Evening News, and James Lee Auchincloss were standing in front of the Hilton Hotel on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, about 8:00pm. They saw a plainclothes man catch a young female protestor and begin to beat her with a blackjack. They went to help the young woman and asked the man to identify himself. Auchincloss was hit twice by the man in response, and Churchill was knocked to the ground. As Churchill rose, a policeman on a three-wheel motorcycle charged them, pinning them against the hotel wall momentarily. In a news article, Churchill identified the young woman as Anita Miller of Chicago.
Winston S. Churchill II, grandson of the former British prime minister, reported from the Middle East during the Six-Day War in 1967, from Czechoslovakia in the Prague Spring of 1968, as well as covering conflicts in Yemen, Borneo, and Vietnam. He became a Member of Parliament in 1970 and served in Parliament until 1997. He died in 2010.
James Lee (Jamie) Auchincloss was the half-brother of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The Walker Report identifies him as working for NBC in 1968, but this lacks confirmation. Auchincloss was six years old in 1953 when he carried the wedding train of his half-sister Jackie up the aisle as she married John F. Kennedy.
David A. Satter, Washington Post reporter
David Satter was also in the crowd at Balbo and Michigan on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, about 8:00pm. He wore a business suit and had press credentials around his neck. Police officers pushed the protestors around him onto the sidewalk and he was maced by an officer spraying into the crowd.
David A. Satter was a police reporter for the Chicago Tribune from 1972 to 1976, became the Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times, and then special correspondent on Soviet affairs for the Wall Street Journal. He was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and at the Jamestown Foundation, as well as a visiting scholar at several universities. He is and was one of the foremost experts on the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. He wrote several books tracing the decline of the Soviet Union and Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. He was expelled from Russia in 2013.
Hunter S. Thompson, Freelance journalist
About 4pm on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, Hunter S. Thompson was walking from the Blackstone Hotel, where he had a room, to the Grant Park bandshell, to catch the last of the MOBE rally. He had a press pass around his neck. On the Balbo Street bridge over the railroad tracks, he encountered a row of police officers. As he tried to walk past the row of police, he was grabbed from behind. “That’s not a press pass,” one of them said. “What the hell do you think it is?” said Thompson. as he slipped out the officer’s grasp. He thought he was free, but then he was punched in the stomach with a billy club, wielded like a battering ram by the officer who had just let him go. Thompson retreated to his hotel room, changed into running shoes, and grabbed his motorcycle helmet.
For the next few hours he was in front of the Hilton Hotel, behind a row of yellow barricades, and backed up against the window of the Haymarket Inn. He watched the violence unfold when the police swept east on Balbo into the crowd massed at the intersection. The last group that the police turned to was the one in front of the Haymarket windows. Thompson pulled his helmet out of his kit bag and jammed it on his head. Moments later a police club came down on his head. Then the window behind him shattered and the officers surged past him.
Hunter S. Thompson had press credentials obtained by his publisher, Random House, who had published his first book, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. In the ten years before 1968, he had worked at Time magazine, where he was fired for insubordination. He also worked at the Middletown Daily Record, where he was also fired. He wrote for a few other papers, including the National Observer. In 1971, he published the work that brought him worldwide fame and created the genre of gonzo journalism, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Lesley Sussman, Lerner Home Newspapers reporter
Lesley Sussman was in the Hilton Hotel around 8:00pm on Wednesday, August 28, 1968. He was standing in the lobby with a girlfriend. Sussman had a press ID pinned to his suit. He heard a loud noise, which was the plate glass window of the Haymarket Lounge imploding under the weight of protestors pinned to the outside of the window by police. Patrons and protestors came into the lobby from the lounge. Sussman saw about five policemen enter the lobby and say, “Get ’em the hell out of here!” Three officers grabbed Sussman, threw him down, and began to beat him. He went into a crouched position and yelled “Press.” The policemen then kicked him in the back. Sussman crawled away and was taken to a suite in Senator Eugene McCarthy’s headquarters on the fifteenth floor of the hotel. He was later treated at Cook County Hospital for a laceration requiring stitches.
Lesley Sussman was a reporter and copyeditor for the Lerner Home Newspapers (a Chicago area group of small local newspapers) in 1968. He later moved to New York and wrote for the Pulitzer Newspapers, Jersey Journal, and the Villager. He authored more than twenty books of nonfiction and three novels.
Paul Sequeira, Chicago Daily News photographer
Paul Sequeira was outside the Hilton on Wednesday, August 28, 1968, photographing events for several hours. He had a helmet labeled “Press” and had several cameras around his neck. After he took a photo of Lieutenant Carl Dobrich spraying mace at a group, Dobrich turned and sprayed mace at Sequeira, who had his camera to his face, so was not hit by the chemical.
A short while later, Sequeira saw a man in an army sergeant’s uniform beating a medic while a dozen police officers looked on. When Sequeira began to take photos, two policemen approached him and ordered him to leave. “Get out of here with that camera!” they said. Sequeira showed his press card and shouted “Press!” He was clubbed on the arm and back. “I was struck from both sides simultaneously,” he said. “I went down on my knees, and held my head. My helmet got yanked off. I put my hands over my head and got several blows on my back and across my shoulders and my hands. My right hand was broken.”
About twenty minutes later he photographed the army “sergeant” again, who tried to kick him and demanded his film. Sequeira stopped a police car, and the man was taken into custody. Sequeira was treated at a hospital later that night.
The man dressed as an army sergeant was later identified as an AWOL soldier, who was not a sergeant. The medic he was beating was Dr. Richard Scott, then an intern at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago. Lieutenant Carl Dobrich was one of the eight police officers indicted by the grand jury; he was charged with two counts of perjury for his denial to the grand jury that he had taken part in the assaults; Dobrich was acquited.
Paul Sequeira was a prolific photographer over a thirty-year career with the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times during which he produced many iconic photographs of Chicago scenes, events, and personalities. Seqerira talks about his experiences during the 1968 DNC in the 1969 documentary by the Film Group, The People’s Right to Know: Police Vs. Reporters.
John Burnett, United Press International reporter
John Burnett was near Harrison and Michigan, outside the Hilton on Wednesday, August 28, 1968. He wore a UPI button, press ID around his neck, and carried a tape recorder marked “UPI.” While following a crowd west on Harrison, Burnett turned and saw a policeman behind him with a raised club. Burnett yelled “Press!” and was clubbed to the ground. Burnett says he was helped to his feet moments later by an African American police officer who appeared to have tears in his eyes. Burnett identified himself as a reporter and the officer said, “You know, man, I didn’t do this. One of the white cops did it. You know what? After this is all over, I’m quitting the force.”
John S. Burnett was a reporter for United Press International. He later wrote for National Geographic, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and is the author of several books.
Barton Silverman, New York Times photographer
Barton Silverman was near the Blackstone Hotel at Balbo and Michigan about 9:00pm on Wednesday, August 28, 1968. He photographed police arresting demonstrators, while standing behind the policemen and displaying press credentials. Silverman later said, “I’m just about to snap the picture of a hippie being arrested and all of a sudden seven cops jump on me. And they drag me into the wagon.” He was arrested and taken to a police lockup for interfering with police actions. But he was not formally charged with any crime and was released about 11pm.
Barton Silverman was primarily a sports photographer at the New York Times for fifty years, though he covered a number of riots and demonstrations in the 1960s. He retired in 2014 at the age of 72.
Jeff Blankfort, Ramparts magazine photographer
Jeff Blankfort was taking photos near Balbo and Michigan around 9:15pm on Wednesday, August 28, 1968. A police captain and a sergeant approached Blankfort, who was wearing a gas mask. He took off his mask and showed his press credentials. Both officers began to club Blankfort around the head and shoulders. Then they took him to a police van where two other policemen beat him. He was taken to police headquarters at 11th and State and released without being charged about 11pm.
Jeff Blankfort was one of the key movement photographers of the 1960s era. His photographs of civil rights sit-ins, antiwar protests, and the Black Panthers appeared in Ramparts, the San Francisco Express-Times, and, via Liberation News Service, in alternative, and later mainstream, newspapers around the world. Later in life he produced and hosted a public affairs program on a Northern California NPR-affiliate and frequently commented about conflicts in the Mideast.
David Nystrom, Chicago Tribune photographer
David Nystrom was behind a police barricade at Balbo and Michigan about 9:15pm on Wednesday, August 28, 1968. He began to take photographs of the beating of Jeff Blankfort. He was approached by police officers and showed his press credentials. He was arrested, taken to police headquarters at 11th and State, and released without being charged about 11pm.
David Nystrom seems to have been a Chicago Tribune photographer for his whole career.
Thomas Corpora, United Press International reporter
Thomas Corpora was also at Balbo and Michigan about 9:15pm on Wednesday, August 28, 1968. He showed his press credentials to a police officer and requested permission to go through a police line. The officer swore at him and called him a “jagoff.” Corpora asked the officer for his name. The officer pushed him with his baton and Corpora repeated his request. A second officer order the first officer to arrest Corpora. He was taken to police headquarters at 11th and State and released without being charged about 11pm.
Thomas Corpora joined the Army at age seventeen and after his discharge worked for UPI and NBC News for most of his career. He reported from Vietnam in 1966 for UPI and returned as NBC’s Saigon bureau chief in the 1970s.
Linda Mathews, Los Angeles Times reporter
Details about Linda Mathews are lacking, but she was likely in the vicinity of Balbo and Michigan on Wednesday night, August 28, 1968. Mathews was arrested, but, like other journalists, does not appear to have been formally charged.
Linda McVeigh Mathews was the first female editor of the Harvard Crimson. She had a range of positions at the Los Angeles Times from 1967 to 1992 including Supreme Court correspondent, Hong Kong correspondent, China correspondent, Opinion Page editor, Deputy National Editor, Deputy Foreign Editor, and Editor Los Angeles Times Magazine. In 1992 she became Senior Producer at ABC News.
Tommy Thompson, LIFE magazine reporter
Tommy Thompson was maced in the face and clubbed with a nightstick by a police officer in front of the Hilton on Wednesday night, August 28, 1968.
Tommy Thompson was a reporter and editor for six years at the Houston Press. He then moved to LIFE magazine where he was entertainment editor, Paris bureau chief, and a staff writer, until the magazine closed in 1972. He published five non-fiction books and a novel. Thompson died in 1982 at the age of 47.
Ulla Hansson, Swedish Cooperative News Center reporter
Details about Ulla Hansson are sketchy; she was clubbed on the elbow by police on Wednesday night, August 28, 1968, probably in the vicinity of Balbo and Michigan.
Sources: The primary source for details of the police violence against journalists is the Walker Report, formally titled Rights in Conflict: The violent confrontation of demonstrators and police in the parks and streets of Chicago during the week of the Democratic National Convention of 1968. A report submitted by Daniel Walker, director of the Chicago Study Team, to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. A handful of additional names and myriad additional details come from court cases, news stories, obituaries, online biographies, and other print and online sources.
Much more about the 1968 Democratic National Convention is at chicago68.com.
