One of the defendants portrayed in Aaron Sorkin’s Oscar-tipped film talks about the 1968 protest and the dramatic trial that followed
Rennie Davis had come to protest peacefully. The
police had come to riot. Wielding batons, they stormed forward yelling, “Kill Davis!” he recalls. He was cracked on the head, knocked to the ground and felt lucky to escape with his life.
It could be a scene from this year’s summer of civil unrest in America. In fact it was a demonstration outside the 1968
Democratic national convention in
Chicago that descended into a violent clash with police and the national guard.