This program will take place at Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Center.
“The whole world is watching!” cried protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention as Chicago police beat them in the streets. When some of that violence was then aired on network television, another kind of hell broke loose. Some viewers were stunned and outraged; others thought the protestors deserved what they got. No one—least of all Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley—was happy with how the networks handled it.
In When the News Broke, Hendershot revisits TV coverage of those four chaotic days—not only the violence in the streets, but also the tumultuous convention itself, where Black citizens and others forcefully challenged southern delegations that had excluded them, anti-Vietnam delegates sought to change the party’s policy on the war, and journalists and delegates alike were bullied by both Daley’s security forces and party leaders. Ultimately, Hendershot reveals the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history, one in which a distorted notion of “liberal media bias” became mainstreamed and nationalized. As Hendershot demonstrates, it doesn’t matter whether the “whole world is watching” if people don’t believe what they see.
The second American Writers Festival is presented by the American Writers Museum and Chicago Public Library. The free literary festival will be held at multiple stages inside the Harold Washington Library Center and feature a variety of leading contemporary authors, poets, artists, and playwrights. The Festival consists of discussion panels and author signings with prominent writers across various genres, including children’s and young adult fiction, science fiction, history, biographies, poetry, and satire, who will share their insights into their craft. Participating writers will address their perspectives on many of today’s most timely and controversial topics including immigration, book censorship, racism, and equality through themes within their literature.
This program is free and open to all, with no advance registration required.
Speakers
Heather Hendershot, Professor in the School of Communication at Northwestern University, is also author of What’s Fair on the Air? Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest and Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line.
Kevin Boyle, William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University, is the author most recently of The Shattering: America in the 1960s. He has written several other books, including the National Book Award winning Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age.
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all, with no advance registration required.
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