Delegates on floor of Miami Beach Convention Center. Photo: Florida Memory
July 10, 1972: First of two major party conventions opens in Miami Beach Protesters assemble in Miami Beach. Photo: Florida Memory
The 1972 Democratic National Convention opened in Miami Beach, a month before the Republican Party held its convention there. It was the last time the two major parties held their conventions in the same city during the same year.
The Democrats and local law enforcement were determined to avoid a replay of the violence that 1968 convention in Chicago, when the national news broadcast images of police beating protestors marching outside the convention headquarters. 
This time around, protestors demanding an end to the Vietnam War and rights for women, gays and marijuana users were given places around the site to camp, assemble and demonstrate.
Inside the hall, a fracturous group supporting liberal causes muscled aside the party's traditional constituencies such as organized labor, took control and nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern who would go on to a landslide defeat against incumbent Richard Nixon. McGovern wasn't seen by voters at large as a particularly strong leader, and Republican success in describing him as pro-abortion, pro-drugs and pro-amnesty for Vietnam War draft dodgers helped seal the deal for Nixon. At the convention, McGovern selected Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton as his running mate. The vice presidential nominating process lasted well into the early morning of the convention's final night, forcing McGovern to deliver his acceptance speech close to 3 a.m., well after the television viewers had gone to bed. Eagleton would resign from the ticket several days after the convention after revealing he had been hospitalized for depression and underwent electroshock therapy. |
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