Journey back Inside The Blanket Fort as we continue our conversation with author Brian Mullgardt on his new book, Wear Some Armor in Your Hair: Urban Renewal and the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Lincoln Park.
Mullgardt’s investigation of the 1968 protest of the Vietnam War against the backdrop of Chicago’s Democratic National Convention and the preceding tensions shines a light on the ministers, Yippies, and community members who showed up and stood together during the ensuing police riot. Beginning in 1955, two competing visions of urban renewal existed, and the groups that propounded each clashed publicly, but peacefully. One group, linked to city hall, envisioned a future Lincoln Park that paid lip service to diversity but actually included very little. The other group, the North Side Cooperative Ministry, offered a different vision of Lincoln Park that was much more diverse in terms of class and race. When the Yippies announced anti-war protests for the summer of ’68, the North Side Cooperative Ministry played an instrumental role. Ultimately, the violence of that week altered community relations and the forces of gentrification won out.
We talk with Brian Mullgardt about some of his favorite aspects of the book that released on May 10th from SIU Press.
