Scholars are offering new insights into Chicago’s turmoil after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination.
Rioting led to 11 reported deaths, hundreds of injuries and arrests and the destruction of more than a hundred Chicago buildings due to arson.
The University of Virginia Presidential Recordings Program is providing new transcripts of conversations between then-Mayor Richard J. Daley and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
David Coleman chairs the program.
COLEMAN: There were 5,000 troops who turned up in Chicago who were mobilized by the federal government. You actually get to hear President Johnson coaching Mayor Daley on what to ask for.
Coleman’s team transcribed tapes like this one of Daley calling the president and asking for federal troops.
DALEY: Mr. President?
LBJ: Yes, Dick.
DALEY: We’re in trouble. We need some help.
LBJ: Yes, I was afraid of that.
DALEY: Yes. It’s starting to break out in different places.
LBJ: Yes.
DALEY: We just met with our people, and they felt that we should try to get some federal assistance.
The new transcripts are being released to commemorate the anniversary of Dr. King’s death on April 4.
To hear the full conversation, click here.
For another conversation between Daley and LBJ, click here.