...and then cancelled
"Today's decision by the National Socialist Party to cancel their planned demonstration in Skokie…is a triumph for all mankind, not just the people who reside in our village."
--Mayor Albert J. Smith
One June 21, 1978, U.S. District Court Judge George Leighton rules that Frank Collin and National Socialist Party of America (NSPA) may hold a rally in Marquette Park on July 9, 1978 in Chicago without obtaining $60,000 liability insurance beforehand (Collin v. O'Malley). There is speculation that this will cause Collin to cancel a scheduled demonstration in Skokie the following Sunday.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Collin said, in response to the ruling, “My enemy in all of this is not the people of Skokie,” adding that if the Chicago Park District “had given us our rights years ago, there would have been none of this difficulty at all.”
On June 23, 1978 Frank Collin cancels the June 25 NSPA rally in favor of a Marquette Park rally on July 9.
Skokie revokes their permit.
On June 25, 1978 Frank Collin and the NSPA do not have a rally, demonstration, or march in Skokie, Illinois.
Frank Collin and the NSPA hold a rally in Marquette Park in Chicago on July 9, 1978. Approximately 1,000 people listen as Frank Collin and Mike Allen, leader of the neo-Nazi group in St. Louis, Missouri, give speeches.
Police detain about 2,000 counterdemonstrators a mile east of Marquette Park to avoid a violent confrontation. 72 people are arrested.