Nixon Demands Firm Civil Rights Plank

Los Angeles Times file photo   Los Angeles Times file photo

July 26, 1960: Vice President Richard Nixon helps his wife, Pat, from a car as they are surrounded by a crowd at the Sheraton-Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. The relatively light security, compared to what we know today, is stunning. On the jump, the Republicans skirmish over their campaign platform, photos from the convention, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. marches for civil rights, and pieces by Times Political Editor Kyle Palmer and James Reston of the New York Times.

Los Angeles Times file photo July 26, 1960: "Group of girls supporting Rockefeller stage impromptu dance on hotel's registration desk in Chicago."

Comments

[Christopher Morales]

It is hard to believe, but while evil was not absent from the world, there was much less awareness of it.

It had been nearly 30 years since an attempt was made on President-Elect Roosevelt's life (killing Chicago mayor Anton Cermack) and 60 years since President McKinley was assasinated.

Even though we were in the depth of the Cold War, the idea that someone would harm a public figure was as far from the minds of most Americans as Sputnik.