Richard Pattisall of Roanoke marks a rare feat: He was at two Chicago conventions 56 years apart

More than half a century — 56 years, to be precise — separates the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago and this year’s Democratic convention in the Windy City.

Much has changed over those years: Back then, there were protests on the convention floor, and what a formal inquiry deemed “a police riot” out on the streets that led to hundreds of injuries and arrests, plus the famous Chicago Seven trial. The mood then was contentious, with eight candidates receiving votes and intrigue surrounding the nomination. By contrast, this year’s Democratic convention serves as a cheerful coronation of the party’s nominee.

One thing, though, connects those two very different Chicago conventions, or should I say one person: Richard Pattisall of Roanoke was at both of them.

In 1968, he was a 30-year-old lawyer who was there as a delegate. This time, he’s a retired judge, and a member of the convention’s rules committee.

Pattisall, now 86, wasn’t planning on going to this year’s convention until happy family events intervened. He has two granddaughters living in the Chicago area. In mid-July, one of them gave birth to his first great-grandchild. Pattisall and his wife, Mary Jane, started to plan a trip to Chicago and he began to wonder if there was a way he could take part in the convention. “I thought I’d like to go to this one because that other one was so tumultuous,” Pattisall said. It was too late to be selected as a delegate, but Susan Swecker, chair of the Virginia Democratic Party, was able to wrangle Pattisall an appointment to the rules committee: “I recommended him to the Biden team and was glad they took my recommendation [to the] now Harris team.”

It’s unclear whether anyone else involved in this year’s Chicago convention was there in 1968 — Swecker said no one from the Virginia delegation can match Pattisall’s feat. Many of the delegates weren’t even born in 1968. The party’s nominee, Kamala Harris, was still shy of her fourth birthday at the time.

Pattisall’s recollection of that tumultuous 1968 convention remains vivid in his mind. The heavy hand of Chicago’s iron-fisted mayor loomed over the convention. When he and other Virginia delegates arrived that year, banners in the airport welcomed the delegates — except they didn’t say “Chicago welcomes …”, they said “Mayor Richard J. Daley welcomes …”

Daley sought to take care of delegates in personal ways: His office assigned a driver to every two delegates. Pattisall recalled that he and Roanoke grocer Vic Thomas (later a state legislator) shared a driver. “Anywhere you wanted to go, you just needed to call him up,” Pattisall said. Unfortunately, many delegates didn’t feel safe going anywhere because of all the protesters on the streets. Pattisall said some delegates retreated to the city’s Playboy Club because it was considered safe.

Daley’s desire to impose order backfired out on the streets and also inside the convention. Pattisall said he remembered talking to Scotty Reston, a famed political reporter for The New York Times. When Reston spotted someone he didn’t know in the press area, he went over to introduce himself and ask who the stranger represented. “Fifth Ward,” the man replied. “Daley had packed the press room” with his supporters, Pattisall said, something that didn’t endear him to the visiting journalists. When Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff placed South Dakota Sen. George McGovern’s name in nomination for president, Ribicoff used part of his time to criticize Daley’s heavy-handed approach to protesters. Pointing at Daley, Ribicoff declared: “With George McGovern, we wouldn’t have Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago.” From the convention floor, Daley shouted back what was described as an antisemitic tirade that probably shouldn’t be repeated here. That was the tone of Chicago ’68. “You feel very safe now,” Pattisall said. That wasn’t the case then.

While the streets outside the convention hall descended into chaos, tragedy struck one member of the Virginia delegation: While Gov. Mills Godwin was in Chicago, his wife and only child were back home in Virginia. While 14-year-old Becky was walking on Virginia Beach, she was struck and killed by lightning. Godwin flew home immediately; the girl’s death cast a pall over the Virginia delegation.

The Virginians were seated directly behind the California contingent, which gave Pattisall an opportunity to interact with two celebrity members of that state’s party: actress Shirley MacLaine and retired National Football League star Roosevelt Grier, who only a few months earlier had helped subdue the gunman who had killed Robert Kennedy.

This year’s Democratic politics match 1968 in one way: Both years saw a sitting president, suffering political losses, step aside with his vice president getting the nomination. Harris, though, was uncontested this year, while Hubert Humphrey in 1968 faced challenges both left and right. Going into the convention, he was widely expected to win the nomination, but Pattisall remembers hearing rumors from the neighboring California delegation about a late push for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy — a sentimental favorite for many delegates after his brother’s assassination. “There was a lot of talk about that,” Pattisall said. In the end, the California Democrats didn’t make a push for Kennedy, but he got a smattering of votes anyway. The main surprise of that convention, politically, was Humphrey’s choice of Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie as his running mate. This year, though, both members of the ticket were known well in advance of the convention.

For Pattisall, this year’s convention has been a much more joyful one than his previous Chicago convention, both for personal and political reasons. He said Wednesday he’s spent much of his time in Chicago visiting family and attending formal breakfasts or luncheons with the Virginia delegation.

“And, of course,” he said, “we’ll be there for the big event Thursday night” — Harris’ acceptance speech.

The politics of renaming the Poff Building

I write a weekly political newsletter, West of the Capital, that goes out every Friday afternoon. This week one of the topics I’ll address is the politics of renaming the federal building in Roanoke, currently named after Richard Poff, a former Republican congressman. Cardinal’s Roanoke Valley reporter, Samantha Verrelli, reported on this earlier this week ; I’ll follow up with some political insight. You can sign up for that or any of our free newsletters here:

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