National Political Conventions 101

Chicago 1888: Frederick Douglass, at the Republican National Convention, became the first African-American to be nominated to become president of the United States and received one vote from Kentucky. Chicago 1968: The Democratic National Convention to nominate Sen. Hubert Humphrey is best remembered for a series of anti-Vietnam War protests and riots that culminated in violence between the protesters and the Illinois National Guard and local law enforcement officers. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. that year added tension. Denver 2008: Sen. Barack Obama became the first African-American to win the presidential nomination.

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