Whether comforting or not, this political maneuvering has been a part of our country since its founding and in a companion piece to last month’s history blog this month’s shares images of presidential primary politicking in Evansville 55 years ago in the tumultuous year of 1968 and as documented in the Evansville Museum’s permanent collection.
1968 was a year of continuing protests against the United States’ military involvement in Vietnam and of racial unrest. In the spring of this year with the prospect that he would not be renominated by the Democrat Party, President Lyndon Johnson chose not to seek re-election. This led to an intense battle for the party’s nomination and the visit of two potential nominees to Evansville. On the Republican side, the party’s presumptive nominee also visited the city.
On Monday, April 14 and Sunday, May 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, brother of the slain President John F. Kennedy, campaigned in Evansville ahead of the May 7 Indiana primary. Kennedy, who entered the campaign following President Johnson’s decision not to run, spoke to a crowd estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 people at Roberts Municipal Stadium on his first visit to the city. On May 5, an audience of 2,000 gathered to hear Kennedy speak at the Vanderburgh County Auditorium, though some left before his address as he arrived two hours after the originally designated time. Kennedy came to Evansville as he and Eugene McCarthy battled for their party’s nomination.
On the morning of Friday, April 26, 1968, the campaign plane of Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy landed at Evansville’s Dress Memorial Airport. McCarthy entered the 1968 campaign for the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination as an anti-Vietnam War candidate and in opposition to President Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the conflict.
In Evansville, McCarthy first visited Lawndale Shopping Center where he greeted morning shoppers. He then stopped at Lincoln School and interacted with youngsters at recess. Next, he walked to his local campaign headquarters on Governor Street and spoke to supporters for half an hour. He then proceeded by motorcade to the corner of Third and Main Streets where he left his vehicle and walked to the Hotel McCurdy where he made a 20-minute address to a nearly full Rose Room. Though he actively campaigned, he came in third in the May 7 primary election behind Kennedy and Indiana governor Roger Branigan who ran as a favorite-son candidate seeking influence at the Democrat Party’s nominating convention.
Neither Kennedy nor McCarthy would become the nominee of the Democrats. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, and McCarthy lost the nomination to Vice President Hubert Humphrey in an era when party leaders held more sway as only 12 states held primary elections.
On the Republican side, former vice-president Richard Nixon campaigned in Evansville on Friday, May 4. Arriving at Dress Memorial Airport, he spoke to an audience of 1,800 people at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Coliseum and criticized the handling of the war in Vietnam, high crime, and the state of the economy. Though Nixon had some competition for the Republican nomination, he swept to victory both in the Indiana primary and in becoming his party’s nominee for the presidency. In November, Nixon narrowly defeated Hubert Humphrey and third-party candidate George Wallace for the presidency.
Photographs: Gift of Kathie J. Meredith
