Wilmington Riot of 1968

The Wilmington Riot of 1968 occurred in April of that year following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. The riot did not cause any fatalities, though there were numerous injuries, arrests, and buildings burned.

Events
Heightened racial tensions and altercations in July 1967 were followed by two days of sporadic vandalism, looting, and firebombing. At the request of Wilmington mayor John Babiarz, state police were summoned to increase patrols. For his part, Governor Charles L. Terry (a southern-style Democrat) publicly warned of minority violence and conspiracies, placed fifteen hundred National Guardsmen on standby alert at Wilmington’s airport, proposed and signed legislation granting him sole authority to impose martial law and ban the sale of alcohol, and established a riot commission.

In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, a large number of black youths converged on the main downtown business area of Wilmington and began looting stores April 9-10, 1968. A report of sniper fire prompted Democratic mayor Babiarz to declare a state of emergency, to impose a curfew, and to request assistance from Governor Terry. The two-day riot that occurred after the assassination was small compared with riots in other cities, but its aftermath highlighted the depth of Wilmington’s racial problem.

On April 9, 1968, Governor Terry ordered the twenty-eight-hundred-strong National Guard to patrol the streets of Wilmington and to restore order. He later ordered National Guard troops to be deployed also in Rehoboth Beach and at the campus of the predominately black Delaware State College in Dover. Within a week, Mayor Babiarz requested withdrawal of the soldiers, but Governor Terry refused, citing unspecified intelligence reports of the potential of renewed and more violent racial disturbances.

Despite repeated requests by Mayor Babiarz and other notables to remove the National Guard, Governor Terry responded, “The Guard is going to stay in Wilmington until we’re sure people and property owners are adequately protected.” As a result, Babiarz openly broke with Terry and Wilmington remained under military occupation for the remainder of 1968 – nine months – reportedly the longest occupation of an American city by armed forces since the Civil War.

The severity of the disorder in Wilmington following King’s assassination is questionable. One writer claimed that “21 buildings were destroyed by fire, 40 people were injured,… 154 citizens were arrested,” and arms caches were found. On the other hand, another writer asserted that “only a dozen persons were reportedly injured and property damage was minimal.” The historial Carol Hoffecker concluded that “the Wilmington riot was a small, short-lived affair that did relatively little damage.”

Whatever the case, the prolonged military occupation of Wilmington received nationwide attention, increasingly tarnished the city’s image, and became an embarrassment to Wilmington’s corporate elite, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade Terry to pull the National Guard out. In November 1968 – six months after the riots – the National Guard was still patrolling Wilmington over the objections of city leaders, who accused the governor of playing to white fears in an election year. City Supervisor O. Francis Biondi told the New York Times, “the National Guard here has become a symbol of white suppression of the black community. That may be a useful way to get elected, but who wants to … run a city under those circumstances?” When Governor Terry sought to discredit the Biracial Coordinating Committee, comprising corporate representatives, the committee publicly stated that the National Guard patrols “create an aura of police state repression which is drastically reducing the effectiveness of longtime programs aimed at correcting the urban conditions that cause riots.”

The 1968 Delaware gubernatorial campaign was dominated by the issue of the National Guard in Wilmington. After his defeat by Russell Peterson for reelection in November, lame-duck governor Terry still refused to withdraw the National Guard. It was left to Governor Peterson, and within an hour of his inauguration in January 1969 he signed the order finally ending the military occupation of Wilmington.

The riot intensified suburban fears of the city and set the stage for the deep animosities that developed during the 1970s over interdistrict school desegregation and the relocation of the region’s primary health care facility.