General John A. Logan Statue (Grant Park)

The striking 19^th-century equestrian monument in downtown Grant Park that honors Civil War Gen. John Logan of Illinois is one of Chicago’s most recognizable statues. It is long remembered as the site of one of the many clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War protesters who gathered in Chicago for the 1968 National Democratic Convention. Iconic photographs and nationally televised video showed the forceful arrest by police who rushed up the hill and dragged a protester from atop the statue during a mass demonstration on Monday, August 26^th, reportedly breaking his arm. A much larger group gathered around the statue the next day to hear speeches denouncing aggressive police actions during the convention. Depictions of both gatherings became symbols of the antiwar resistance and violent clashes during the convention.

Some of the most iconic images from the stormy events surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention emerged from antiwar protests at the statue of Gen. John Logan in Grant Park. Logan (1826-1886) was an Illinois-born Union commander in the Civil War and U.S. representative and senator who is credited with founding Memorial Day as a national day of remembrance for those who died in the war. 

The equestrian monument, designed by sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Alexander Phimister Proctor and architect Stanford White, was dedicated July 22, 1897, and remains one of Chicago’s most recognizable sculptures. The bronze statue depicts Logan raising a flag in his right hand and sits atop a hill-like tomb that was intended as the burial place for Logan and his wife but remains empty. (He is buried in Washington, DC.) 

A group of anti-Vietnam War protesters swarmed onto the statue across from the Conrad Hilton Hotel, the Democratic Party headquarters during the convention, on Monday, August 26, 1968, and draped it in the red and Black flag of the National Liberation Front, or Vietcong. They shouted and taunted police who stood at the bottom of the rise, reflecting anti-police tensions that had been building to a crescendo in Chicago. Police waving their nightsticks rushed up the hill, prompting most of the demonstrators to clamber off the statue. One college student protester clung to the top of the statue before being pulled off by police who climbed up and then hauled him down the hill and into a squad car. The forceful seizure of Lee Edmundson, 18, a supporter of presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy who said he had his arm broken by police, was shown widely in photographs and on national television. The incident, along with an even larger protest rally at the statue the following day, became among the biggest symbols of antiwar resistance and violent clashes involving Chicago police during the convention.

Closely associated with the Grant Park protests were demonstrations held by countercultural and antiwar groups three miles north in Lincoln Park. The radical Youth International Party (Yippies), whose cofounders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were among the Chicago Seven (originally Chicago Eight) defendants charged in connection with the city riots, staged a five-day Festival of Life that used street theater and other tactics to protest the war and critique authorities, drawing up to 10,000 supporters a day. Police beat and used tear gas against demonstrators who remained in the park beyond a city-imposed 11 p.m. curfew. Some enraged demonstrators smashed streetlights and windows in frequent clashes with police that also spilled over into the adjacent Old Town neighborhood. 

Hundreds of protesters were arrested during this period, including the other members of the Chicago Eight: Rennie Davis and David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE); John Froines; Tom Hayden, cofounder of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale; and Lee Weiner.

Jones, Julius. “The Whole World Is Watching!”, Chicago History Museum. Accessed October, 2022. https://www.chicagohistory.org/chicago1968/.

General John Logan Monument, Chicago Monuments Project. Accessed October, 2022. https://chicagomonuments.org/monuments/general-john-logan-monument.

Mullen, William. Interview with protester Lee Edmundson 50 years after the statue incident, Chicago Tribune. August 24th, 2008. Accessed October, 2022. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-08-24-0808230182-story.html.

Kusch, Frank, “Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention,” Praeger Publishers, 2004.

John Logan: War Hero, Public Servant, Founder of Memorial Day, National Park Service. Accessed October, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/john-logan-war-hero-public-servant-founder-of-memorial-day.htm.

"Witness Says Police in Chicago Broke His Arm During Protest." New York Times January 15th, 1970.

Sealock, Miriam. The Use and Abuse of Police Power in America: Historical Milestones and Current Controversies. Chicago Police During the 1968 Democratic National Convention. ABC - Clio, 2017.