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Sunday, May 4, 1969 –  Late afternoon Tear gas lingers in the soft spring air, rocks and bricks are strewn through the streets, all residue of last night’s riot. Mifflanders still want a block party; Mayor Bill Dyke still says no and refuses to issue a permit. Hundreds of kids are hanging out around Mifflin and Bassett streets, hundreds of cops are on their way. As the crowd builds, Ald. Paul Soglin is arrested a second time, for “unlawful assembly” – while standing by himself near his Bassett St. apartment. Alderwoman Alicia Ashman tries to bail him out, but jailers won’t take h...

Madison in the Sixties: The Mifflin Street Block Party Riots, part 1 On April 29, 1969, an anonymous group calling itself the International Were Wolf Conspiracy posts flyers downtown advertising a party that Saturday in the 500 block of West Mifflin St. The illustration is of a man with a bandolero, with a call for “armed love” and to “off the pig.” The Mifflanders don’t care that they don’t have a permit; lots of neighborhoods throw block parties without official sanction. Cops had even diverted traffic for a no-permit party on West Gilman Street just the week prior. [i] But they...