The Chicago Seven were charged with inciting to riot. The goal of the Chicago Seven was to disrupt the 1968 Democratic Convention which was held in Chicago. The riots gained national attention because the convention and all of the riots were shown on live TV. The timing of political thought in 1968 was pretty radical. MLK had been assassinated, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated and the radical factions in the country (the Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers and other radical groups) wanted an immediate change in the way things were done. They wanted the government to get out of Viet Nam, they wanted radical reforms in everything from civil rights issues to legalization of drugs, and they felt that the time was right to make their move. Lyndon Johnson was President, but he withdrew from the primaries when he felt that he had no chance of winning. Bobby Kennedy would have probably won the nomination in a landslide, but his assassination left the nomination up for grabs. The 1968 convention was probably the last convention where the outcome wasn't known before the convention. Hubert Humphrey (Johnson's Vice President) ran, as did Eugene McCarthy and others. George Wallace left the democratic party to run as an independent, third party candidate. Based on all the dis-organization at the time, it appeared that the 1968 convention offerred an opportunity to actually turn the party in a different direction in a very short period of time. The Chicago Seven did not succeed, and Mayor Daley's heavy handed use of the Police to quash the rioters left a very bad taste in everyone's mouths. The riots could be attributed to an attempt to gain control of a major party in an overnight effort, but the effort resulted in a split party, as Humphrey won the nomination, McCarthy lost and a significant portion of the party left with him to try to create an independent run for the White House.taking many democrats with him. This split, along with the departure of George Wallace from the party, allowed Republican Richard Nixon to narrowly defeat Humphrey and take the Presidency. This was the complete opposite of what the rioters wanted, but Nixon allowed the many radicals to band together against a common foe.