The Chicago Seven 

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On September 24, 1969  the Chicago Seven trial began for 7 protesters up on charges related to the riots in Chicago in the previous year during the Democratic National Convention that was held in August 26 to 29, 1968.

"The Chicago Seven" were first indicted on March 20, 1969 (their defense attorneys were William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass). The trial began on September 24, 1969 and five members were convicted of crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot, and sentenced to five years in prison...but these 5 convictions were later overturned on appeal. Two others were acquitted by the jury on all counts. The original "eighth member", Bobby Seale (co-founder the Black Panther Party) was tried separately and sentenced to 4 years in prison. 

The Co-defendants - Short Bios and sub-Notes

1) Abbie Hoffman - co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). Later he became a fugitive from the law, living under an alias after a conviction for dealing cocaine (while "underground", he had worked as an environmentalist). Chicago Seven conviction overturned on appeal. At 53, Hoffman died April 12, 1989.

2) Jerry Rubin - co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") with Hoffman. - Rubin was found not guilty on all charges. Chicago Seven conviction overturned on appeal.

3) David Dellinger - Chicago Seven conviction overturned on appeal. In 1996, the first Democratic Convention held in Chicago since 1968, Dellinger was arrested along with his grandson and Abbie Hoffman's son during a protest. At 88, Dellinger died May 25, 2004.

4) Tom Hayden - President of SDS from 1962 to 1963 - Chicago Seven conviction overturned on appeal - Went to North Vietnam in 1972 with future wife Jane "Hanoi Jane" Fonda - In January 2008, as a Progressive Democrat, Hayden wrote an op-ed piece for *The Huffington Post supporting Barack Obama.

*Bill Ayers (like Tom Hayden, who was also an SDS leader) had an adopted son named Chesa Boudin (son of Kathy Boudin, the Weathermen Underground member convicted of murder in the 1981 New York Brinks robbery, and paroled from prison in 2003) and Chesa (also like Tom Hayden) had been working as a writer at The Huffington Post too. Barrack Obama later wrote a letter of recommendation to help Chesa Boudin get his Rhodes Scholarship. (Obama had MANY "indirect" ties to SDS, the Black Liberation Army, Weather Underground, and the 1981 Brinks Robbery in New York that was committed by an off-shoots of the Black Panthers (which was originally co-founded by *Bobby Seale in 1966) and the Weathermen Underground (which was originally co-founded by Bill Ayers in 1970) . In 1981 Barack Obama had been living in NYC at that same exact time (when Obama's records from Columbia University at the time can't be found, and no one remembers him from school.) As President of the United States of America now, any reasonable person would think that JUST ONE SINGLE PERSON would pipe up and say, "Hey look! I used to go to college with that guy at Columbia University!" ....but not a single person has yet to step forward to make that claim, and Obama glosses over this period of time in his life. Suspicious? Coincidental? Odd? Ironic? Serendipity?

5) Rennie Davis - of the "Mobe" with Bill Ayers at a rally for SDS in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1965 when Ayers' was first arrested. Davis' Chicago Seven conviction overturned on appeal.

6) John Froines - acquitted by the jury on all counts 

7) Lee Weiner - acquitted by the jury on all counts. At the time of trial, Weiner was a teaching assistant at Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois. He had lived in a Chicago South Side apartment with a girlfriend.
*Bill Ayers' wife, Bernardine Rae Dohrn is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University.
*Bill Ayers' father Thomas Ayers was a long time Northwestern University trustee.
*Howard Trienens (of Sidley & Austin, who hired Bernardine Dohrn to work in their NYC branch office in 1984, 3 years after the Brinks robbery.)
(As an aside: Eight years after "The Chicago Seven" trial, the first and second Unabomber attacks occurred at Northwestern University.)

* Bobby Seale - with Huey P. Newton (both were inspired by Malcolm X) co-founded the Black Panther Party (BBP) on October 15, 1966 to promote Black Power. (The trial was originally  named "The Chicago Eight" but Bobby Seale was later tried separately for contempt of court and sentenced to four years imprisonment).

- The Chicago Seven trial was for charges related to riots that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention from August 26 to August 29, 1968. (Prior to the convention that year was the North Vietnamese "Tet Offensive " on January 31, 1968 and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 followed by Robert F. Kennedy on June 5,1968).

- Graham Nash dedicates a song to Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (son Richard M.). The lyric "Won't you please come to Chicago" refers to Nash pleading with band mates Stephen Stills and Neil Young to come to Chicago to protest the Chicago Eight trial. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley had special ties to the Kennedy family (JFK and RFK, now deceased) had played an integral role in the election of John F. Kennedy back in 1960. The Chicago Seven trial began on September 24, 1969.

- In 1996 Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden (of "The Chicago Seven" in 1968 and veteran members of SDS with Bill Ayers) and are in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention on a panel discussing a progressive counterbalance to "the religious right".

Days of Rage October 8 to 10, 1969

 The Days of Rage riots in Chicago were a series of events in October 1969 that were organized by Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The group planned it for October 8-11, as a "National Action" built around John Jacobs' slogan, "Bring the war home!"

They had hoped for 25,000, but no more than 350 people showed up on the first evening of Wednesday, October 8, 1969, in Chicago's Lincoln Park (and most likely half of them were members of Weatherman collectives from around the country). Late in the evening, Jacobs stood on the pedestal of the bombed Haymarket policemen's statue and gave a little anti-war speech.

According to Bill Ayers:

"The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theater of 'here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here's the little path they're going to march down, and here's where they can make their little statement.' We wanted to say, "No, what we're going to do is whatever we had to do to stop the violence in Vietnam.'"

This Blogger's Note: As you will soon realize, detailed in my post "Obama's Early Years in New York Finally Revealed?" you will readily see that Bill Ayers and his claims of "stopping the violence in Vietnam" was not his true calling in life. Long after the military draft and Viet Nam War were over, he and his cohorts in the Weatherman Underground (while on the run from the law) continued on with their exceptionally brutal acts of violence throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's, with multiple bombings, culminating into the 1981 Brinks Armored car robbery, during which several people were cold-bloodedly killed and horribly injured - and innocent passerby's were victimized and car-jacked - and entire families affected. Their rampage for almost for a decade cause death and injury to many, and emotionally crippled many more...the property damage they cause was insignificant in comparison.

At 10:25 p.m., Jones gave the pre-arranged signal over a bullhorn, and the Weatherman action began...

Jacobs, Jones, David Gilbert and others led a charge south through the city toward the Drake Hotel, smashing windows in automobiles and buildings as they went. The protesters attacked "ordinary cars, a barber shop and the windows of lower-middle-class homes as well as police cars and luxury businesses. The mass of the crowd ran about four blocks before encountering police barricades. The mob charged the police but splintered into small groups, and more than 1,000 police counter-attacked. Although many protesters had -  as John Jacobs did  - motorcycle or football helmets on, the police were better trained and armed and nightsticks were aimed at necks, legs and groins. Large amounts of tear gas were used.

After only a half-hour or so, the riot was over: 28 policemen were injured (none seriously), six Weathermen were shot, and an unknown number injured, and 68 protesters were arrested. Jacobs had been arrested almost immediately.

The next day a "Women's Militia" of around seventy female Weatherman members met at Grant Park, where Bernardine Dohrn addressed them. Later that day Illinois Governor Richard Ogilvie announced that he had called in over 2,500 National Guardsmen to protect Chicago, so the Weatherman cancelled protests that had been planned for that evening.

The largest event of the Days of Rage occurred on Friday, October 9, when RYM II (DSD /Weathermen) led an interracial march of 2,000 people through a Spanish-speaking part of Chicago. At the October 9th RYM II rally at the federal courthouse, Black Panther leader Fred Hampton disassociated his group from the Weatherman, saying, "We do not support people who are anarchistic, opportunistic, adventuresses, and Custeristic."

That night Weatherman uncovered a police informant, who was then severely beaten by one member of the group. The assailant, who immediately appeared on wanted posters, became the first member of Weatherman to go underground.

On Saturday, October 10, about 300 protesters marched swiftly through The Loop, Chicago's main business district, watched over by a double-line of heavily armed police. Led by Jacobs and other Weatherman members, the protesters suddenly broke through the police lines and rampaged through the Loop, smashing windows of cars and stores. But the police were ready and within 15 minutes, more than half the crowd had been arrested—one of the first, again, being Jacobs.

Richard Elrod, a city attorney, was paralyzed after he attempted to tackle Weatherman member Brian Flanagan. Elrod accused Flanagan of attacking him, while Flanagan maintained that Elrod simply hit a concrete wall (this is what Varon states as well. Flanagan was charged with attempted murder and other crimes but was acquitted on all counts.

The Days of Rage cost Chicago and the state of Illinois about $183,000 ($100,000 for National Guard payroll, $35,000 in damages, and $20,000 for one injured citizen's medical expenses). 287 members of WUO were arrested during the Days of Rage and most of Weatherman and SDS' leaders were jailed. The organization paid out more than $243,000 to cover bail. (Already a well-financed organization.)

Chicago Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, who had a mostly friendly relationship with Weatherman, denounced the group's action, fearing that it would alienate potential allies and invite an escalation of police oppression.

One month after the Days of Rage in Chicago

-On November 13, 1969, two Chicago police officers were ambushed and murdered by the Black Panthers.

-December 4, 1969 - Fred Hampton, a suspect, was killed in a very controversial raid at his Chicago apartment.

-On December 6, in a show of retaliation, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.

-In March 1970 - Jones and other Weathermen failed to appear for their court date to face charges.

-On March 6, 1970 - The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion:  killed in the blast were Weathermen members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins - - - Kathy Boudin and Cathlyn Wilkerson had survived and escaped police.  Weatherman Group, became  Weathermen Underground.

What I really think of Bill Ayers