The GOP Convention-1968

I went to Miami for the 1968 GOP convention and wrote a story, which I just found, for the Washington University Newspaper.  I flew to Miami on student standby for $25 each way, after working the summer as an order picker in a coat warehouse.  I stayed in a hotel room that my father’s friend had (he worked for a TV network).

Reading the story refreshed my memory.  Miami Beach and the hotels that housed the delegates were overwhelmingly White.  The only persons of color I saw, other than Cubans, were Reverend Ralph Abernathy and about forty people from his organization, “The Poor People’s March.” Security was incredibly light, even considering the two assassinations that had occurred earlier that year.  The Fontainebleau Hotel was Nixon’s headquarters, and not only could one simply walk into the lobby without being frisked, but when Nixon arrived he waded through a crowd of about one thousand people who touched him or shook his hand, me included. 
There were many hospitality suites.  H.L. Hunt, the big oil baron, had one.  I took the elevator up and knocked on the door, and he personally answered it and gave me a speech that I long since have forgotten. 

 Lifelong Republican Wilt Chamberlain had a suite too.  When I entered there was “The Stilt” sitting around with four or five other people, and he was very friendly.

 That convention was the last one where the result had not been decided before it began.  Nelson Rockefeller had a significant minority of delegates and Ronald Reagan an even smaller one, but Nixon was able to wrangle enough votes for a first ballot win.  He then selected the unknown Spiro Agnew, who was famous for not visiting a black slum and saying, “If you’ve seen one slum you’ve seen them all.”

 Things were a lot different the next month when I was in Chicago for the Democratic Convention. I think I’m one of the few people still alive who was at both. I’ll write about the latter next month.