The 1988 Democratic Convention by Jo Freeman

The Protests

The official protest zone was in a parking lot two blocks from the convention site. Groups signing up for two-hour slots included the Coalition to Support Cuban Detainees, Mad Housers, LEGAL, a gay rights group, and Compassion Campaign ‘88, which supported animal rights.

The traditional Sunday march was pre-empted when a group of white supremacists announced that they were the ones who would march on this convention, from the state capitol to the protest zone. A group of counter demonstrators immediately said they would be there to oppose them, calling them the Klan by another name. The City of Atlanta initially granted the Nationalist Movement a permit, but the Public Safety Commissioner revoked it at the last minute when it looked like the two groups would clash. The counter-demonstrators never had a permit.

When 30 members of the Nationalist Movement tried to march in downtown Atlanta carrying Confederate flags, they were surrounded by 250 counter-demonstrators. The police separated the two groups and took the head of the former into protective custody. When he was out of sight, the counter-demonstrators trashed his truck.

A line of police officers block counter-demonstrators from following the Nationalist Movement.
Atlanta police major tells white supremacist Richard Barrett that his permit to march has been revoked.
Richard Barrett spoke to the press after the police said his group could not march. He inveighed against "police oppression."
a local labor protest
anti-war protestors were scarce

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