The man who ch
Late activist told real story behind landmark political trial
The Chicago Seven drew crowds bigger than the Beatles amid their 1969 court showdown with a biased judge over anti-war protests in the biggest political trial in US history.
A perfect storm of political unrest and generational conflict against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and a hunger for social justice set the stage for some of the most bizarre scenes ever seen in court.
This week a film telling the incredible story landed five Golden Globe nominations. Sadly one of the Seven, Rennie Davis, died aged 80 from lymphoma the day before the nominations were announced.
But in one of his final interviews, he told the Mirror about his inspirational campaigning life, including his friendship with John Lennon.
And he said humanity has again reached a crossroads, and a new revolution could be on its way.
Amazingly Netflix did not speak to Rennie as they made The Trial of the Chicago 7, and he remained oblivious to its content until it was released late last year. He said: “I heard nothing. I would be the one to talk to, that’s for sure.”
He told us the real story behind the film, directed by Aaron Sorkin with top British actors including Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and The Hustle’s Alex Sharp, who plays Rennie. Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays wild-haired activist Abbie Hoffman, earned one of the award nominations, for Best Supporting Actor.
Rennie was born in 1940 and grew up on a chicken farm in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He grew into a smart, charismatic, engaging man with a sense of injustice and a kilowatt smile, who became the brains behind the anti-war movement.
He said: “The dominant issue in the beginning, was racial discrimination. There were lynchings still occurring in the States that were essentially legal. No one went to prison. That was the first thing.
“Then when the Vietnam war began in 1965 it became a second motivating issue.”
As a teenager he founded Students for a Democratic Society while attending at Oberlin College in Ohio.
After bringing various student bodies together, the first demonstration took place in 1967 in Washington, DC, where Davis was a keynote speaker in front of 150,000 people. Backed by Martin Luther King, the group sensed they had growing support and planned another protest at the Democratic National Convention in September 1968 over the escalating Vietnam War.
Rennie said: “My feeling was we would have 500,000 people in Chicago. The mayor of the city had another idea, and for the first time ever a major coalition was denied permits 15 times.
“We contacted the justice department to appeal, but the mayor stuck to it and basically refused permits and so as a result much fewer people felt safe to come.” Initially, the group met in Chicago’s Lincoln Park but police quickly tried to disperse them, taking tear gas and batons to the 30,000 people gathered there. Rennie said: “It was a horror show to the world. By the third night, more people were watching what was happening in Chicago than saw the first man landing on the moon. It was gigantic. The impact is hard to imagine.”
Two weeks earlier, a Gallup poll had showed most Americans supported the war in Vietnam. By the time police were beating the protesters, opinions had reversed.
The demonstrations continued before the group was eventually granted a permit to form in Grants Park. But when a teenager lowered the park’s Stars and Stripes flag to half-mast, police again moved in.
Rennie said: “At our trial, he said it was a message of international distress, but the police just came in and beat people silly.
“So they arrested him and beat everybody on the way back out.”
The protesters begged police to leave them alone, as it was a lawful gathering. But their pleas fell on deaf ears. Rennie received a cut to head from a baton, managing to escape before passing out and being taken to hospital.
But still the police would not leave him alone, and it was only the bravery of medics that saved him.
He said: “The police went hysterical because I was the organiser of this band and I had been beaten and not arrested.
“So they started a roomby-room search of the hospital for me. The employees who risk covering me up with a
“They kept on mov from the police until I out. These were the m so upset with what the they rallied for me. It most moving experien
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The trial of the rema Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hof
More people were watching than saw the moon landing
RENNIE DAVIS ON HOW THE WORLD WAS INSPIRED
John Froines, Tom Hayden and Lee Weiner – and their lawyers were pitted against the prosecution and a biased justice system.
The seven would arrive in court dressed in headbands, flower-power floral shirts and jeans.
Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin once wore judicial robes, and when asked to
Protesters in Lincoln Park in 1968
ATTACKED Hurt protester with bandaged head take them off they did so – revealing police uniforms underneath.
Rennie said: “The trial became like the first reality TV show.” At one point Judge Hoffman made a comment about defendant Hoffman, who formed part of a motley group of anti-war activists, political radicals and
POPULAR More watched protests than moon landing
Activist Bobby Seale in 1968 the theatrical revolutionaries called Yippies. Noting their shared surname, the justice told the court: “He is not my son.”
The defendant quickly replied: “Dad, dad, have you forsaken me?”
Over the five-month trial, the judge cited the Seven and their lawyers for contempt almost 200 times.
Throughout the case Rennie was allowed out on bail and he would make powerful speeches attracting 25,000 people.
He said: “Wherever we appeared, it was a big event. We were on the same level as the Beatles. The way the trial was handled, it really became the biggest recruitment tool we had for our cause. It was the biggest publicity we could have. “We were heroes to lots and there were people who thought we were undermining the authority of the government.
“The jury was divided along the same lines as the country and they came back deadlocked when they returned their initial verdict. They had been sequestered for fiveand-a-half months unable to see their family. So as a result, unless they compromised, they might have never gone home.”
The Seven were cleared of the more serious conspiracy charge but found guilty of crossing states as well as contempt.
Davis was handed five years and a $5,000 (£3,656) fine but was later cleared by the Supreme Court.
The trial had been watched by millions, including John Lennon.
When Davis later planned a series of civil disobedience protests trying to shut down the government, he found himself being courted by the former Beatle.
Davis told the Mirror: “We got together and I said to John, ‘Why don’t we just do a tour of the country?
“You bring the musicians. I’ll bring the speakers and go to 42 cities and then we’ll end it with a million people at the Republican convention in San Diego against the war in Vietnam’. To my amazement, he said, ‘OK, let’s do it’.”
Together they made their first appearance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with an audience of 25,000 – but the Government quickly stepped in, fearing the group’s power.
And he said life in the US was made difficult for Lennon from that point.
Rennie said: “The Nixon administration just came down on John after that.
“That’s what started the marijuana charges and his attempted deportation back to England. He was just legally tied up, and he didn’t want to leave the States.”
Such was the men’s closeness that Rennie had a ringside seat to the creation of one of the 20th century’s defining songs.
He said “We were sitting making some plans once in his house and he looked at his watch and realised he was late for something. He said do you want to come along?
“I had no idea where we’re going, but we walked into the studio and the band that was supporting John at the time was there.
“There was like 20 chairs and John sat at the piano and the band was behind him and he was recording the final overdub of Imagine. It was just amazing.
“Me, John, Yoko and the band. It was a beautiful song.”
He told the Mirror he believed another revolution is on its way, saying: “I think that we’re in a time in history that we are just beyond our comprehension.
“We’re at a crossroads of Donald Trump dismantled it.
“If you believe in the United States as a principle or a vision, and many people do, with the faults and everything, I would say that Trump has done more to damage that vision than any president in the history or any generation in history.”
He added: “I’m not a doomsday person. I’m not coming from any ideology or anything like that.
“I’m just pretty good at seeing what’s coming. And I see that humanity is in trouble right now as a species.”
Rennie died in Berthoud, Colorado, with wife Kirsten Liegmann at his side.
He said a large tumour had been discovered just two weeks earlier.
In tribute to Rennie, she said: “I know many of you feel very inspired by Rennie.
“He has touched lives in ways that no one can truly comprehend, from his 60s leadership in the anti-war movement to today’s trail-blazing of a new humanity.
“He will be missed beyond words, but I know he has other grand things to do.
“Go fly, my beloved one, and leave your beautiful mark once again.” evolution.
I said, you bring the musicians, I’ll bring the speakers. He said OK
RENNIE DAVIS ON TEAMING UP WITH LENNON