The Wilmington riots of 1968
The Wilmington riots of 1968 were a series of civil disturbances that erupted in Wilmington, Delaware, following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. The unrest caused significant damage to the city's downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, leaving lasting marks on Wilmington's social, economic, and political landscape. The riots prompted a prolonged military occupation of Wilmington that stood as one of the longest deployments of National Guard troops in an American city during the post–World War II era. Decades later, the events of 1968 remain a defining chapter in Delaware's history, shaping conversations about race, civil rights, and urban development in the state well into the twenty-first century.
Background and Context
By the late 1960s, Wilmington, like many American cities, was experiencing significant racial tension. Delaware's largest city had long been marked by racial inequalities in housing, employment, and civic life. African American residents of Wilmington faced systemic discrimination that had accumulated over generations, and the national momentum of the Civil Rights Movement had brought these grievances into sharp relief. Community leaders, activists, and ordinary residents had been pressing for meaningful change, but progress remained slow and uneven.
The broader national climate was volatile. The United States was gripped by protests, demonstrations, and periodic unrest linked to racial injustice, the ongoing Vietnam War, and deepening divisions within American society. Against this backdrop, the assassination of Reverend King in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, acted as a flashpoint. News of his death spread rapidly, and grief and outrage ignited disturbances in cities across the country.[1] Washington, D.C., experienced some of the most destructive rioting in the nation during this period, with thousands of federal troops deployed into the city.[2] Wilmington was no exception to this nationwide wave of unrest.
The Riots and Their Immediate Impact
When news of King's assassination reached Wilmington, unrest broke out in the city. Violence, property destruction, and confrontations between residents and law enforcement erupted across neighborhoods, particularly in the downtown area and in predominantly African American sections of the city. The riots caused considerable damage to Wilmington's commercial and residential districts, with businesses destroyed and buildings burned or looted.[3]
The then-Governor of Delaware, described by contemporaries as nervous and reactive in his response, deployed the National Guard to impose order on the city.[4] The military occupation of Wilmington that followed the initial unrest extended far beyond what was seen in most other American cities affected by the 1968 disturbances. National Guard troops remained stationed in Wilmington for months, a presence that generated ongoing controversy and became central to discussions about state power, civil liberties, and race relations in Delaware.
Rodney Square, a prominent public space in the heart of Wilmington, became one of the notable focal points associated with the riots and their aftermath, serving as a site around which the events of 1968 are historically remembered and interpreted.[5]
The Role of Activists and Community Members
The 1968 riots did not unfold in a vacuum; they were shaped by the actions and choices of individuals across the Wilmington community. For some residents, the upheaval of 1968 catalyzed deeper engagement with civil rights activism. Community members and local organizers who had been working within established channels found themselves drawn further into direct action and advocacy as the city convulsed with unrest.[6]
Women in particular played significant roles in the broader civil rights efforts in Delaware during and after 1968. For some activists, witnessing the violence and political consequences of the riots served as a major catalyst into sustained work within the civil rights movement in Delaware, pushing them toward greater involvement in community organizing, advocacy, and resistance against racial injustice.[7]
Long-Term Effects on Wilmington
The damage inflicted during the 1968 riots had consequences for Wilmington that persisted for decades. The destruction of portions of the downtown and adjacent neighborhoods accelerated processes of urban decline that had already been underway. Businesses that were destroyed or damaged did not always reopen, and the economic vitality of affected areas suffered significantly. Residents who lost homes, livelihoods, or community institutions bore the costs of the unrest in immediate and enduring ways.
The riots also reshaped the demographic and economic character of central Wilmington. The destruction of the downtown contributed to the hollowing out of commercial districts and the exodus of investment from the city's core.[8] For African American residents, the aftermath of the riots compounded existing inequalities, as the neighborhoods most affected by the violence were the same communities that had already faced decades of disinvestment and neglect.
The extended National Guard occupation that followed the riots also left a lasting imprint on community trust in governmental institutions. The deployment, which stretched on long after order had been nominally restored, was widely experienced by Black Wilmington residents as a form of continued suppression rather than protection. This perception deepened mistrust between communities of color and law enforcement and government authorities in Delaware.
Legacy and Historical Memory
The Wilmington riots of 1968 have remained a persistent reference point in discussions of race, inequality, and urban history in Delaware. Scholars, educators, and community leaders have returned repeatedly to the events of 1968 as a lens through which to examine the broader trajectory of African American life in the state. In 2017, the University of Delaware hosted a formal conversation titled "Blacks in Delaware since the Wilmington Riots of 1968," bringing together voices from across the state to reflect on the changes and persistent challenges in the decades since the upheaval.[9]
The physical landscape of Wilmington has also carried the memory of the riots. Neighborhoods that were damaged in the 1968 unrest retained visible evidence of that destruction for years, with vacant lots, abandoned structures, and underdeveloped parcels serving as reminders of the upheaval. In more recent years, efforts have been made to address these lingering physical scars. Plans to redevelop parts of a Wilmington neighborhood damaged in the 1968 riots have been proposed, aiming to bring new investment and vitality to areas that never fully recovered from the events of that year.[10]
The 1968 riots have also served as a historical touchstone during subsequent periods of racial unrest in Wilmington and across the United States. When protests over racial justice and police conduct unfolded in Wilmington in 2020, commentators and participants alike drew explicit connections to the events of 1968, noting that the same streets and spaces had been the sites of earlier confrontations between communities and authorities.[11] This layering of historical memory has made the 1968 riots a recurring frame of reference in public discourse about justice, policing, and civic life in Delaware.
Remembrance and Public History
Efforts to document and commemorate the Wilmington riots of 1968 have grown over time. Public history initiatives, academic projects, and community-based programs have worked to preserve the stories of those who lived through the events and to interpret their significance for subsequent generations. Sites such as Rodney Square, which figured prominently in the events of 1968 and their aftermath, have been documented as part of broader efforts to record the civil rights history of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic region.[12]
The personal testimonies of activists and community members who participated in or witnessed the events of 1968 have been gathered and shared through oral history projects, journalistic accounts, and community publications. These accounts provide important texture to the historical record, capturing the human dimensions of an event that could otherwise be reduced to statistics of property damage and troop deployments.[13]
The Wilmington riots of 1968 occupy a central place in the history of Delaware and in the broader national story of civil rights, urban unrest, and the struggle for racial equality in the second half of the twentieth century. The events of those days in April 1968 set in motion changes — in the city's physical fabric, in its politics, in its communities — that continue to shape Wilmington in the twenty-first century.