February 2021

By Stacy M. Brown, rioting and arson, in protest of the deci- (equivalent to $3.2 million in 2019) in contended in an interview with a French NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent sion to integrate, occurred almost daily. property damage. newspaper that the United States har- @StacyBrownMedia In response to tensions, members of a Chavis and nine others, eight young bored ‘hundreds, perhaps thousands’ of Wilmington, North Carolina, is known Ku Klux Klan chapter and other white su- Black males, who were high school stu- political prisoners,” The Times reported. today for its vibrant riverfront with three premacist groups began patrolling the dents, and white female anti-poverty Young added, “The Wilmington Ten, for colorful island beaches and southern hos- streets. They hung an effigy of the White worker, were arrested on charges of arson example, are innocent.” pitality, major contributors to the port superintendent of the schools and cut his related to the grocery fire. Based on testi- “Mr. Young later apologized for the re- city’s bustling tourism. phone lines. Street violence broke out mony of three young Black men (who later mark about hundreds or thousands of po- However, Wilmington’s past paints a between them and Black men who were recanted their testimony), they were tried litical prisoners, but he still says, picture of a much different city. Viet Nam veterans. Students attempted to and convicted in state court of arson and privately, that the charges against the Ten While things may be different in boycott the high schools in January of conspiracy in connection with the fire- were ‘trumped up,’’’ noted the Times. today’s Wilmington. It was not that long 1971. bombing of Mike’s Grocery. The Wilmington Ten spent nearly a de- ago that Wilmington, like too many other Chavis and a group that became known At trial, all ten defendants were pro- cade in prison before federal appellate southern cities, still condoned the region’s as the Wilmington Ten, argued for Black vided defense counsel by the United courts overturned their convictions in De- ugly racist culture and practices. history courses, respect for King and all Church of Christ Commission for Racial cember 1980, citing prosecutorial miscon- More than a century after America’s Black people and equality. Justice. However, it was later established duct. Civil War had ended, on Feb. 1, 1971, a Tensions continued to mount, with the that the prosecutors conspired against the Timothy Tyson, a North Carolina histo- young minister named Benjamin Franklin Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacists defendants by paying witnesses to falsely rian and visiting professor at Duke Univer- Chavis, Jr., arrived in the city. firebombing buildings and shooting at identify Chavis and the other Wilmington sity, told CNN he was given the Chavis was sent to Wilmington by the Black students. Ten members — who were the actual tar- Wilmington Ten prosecutor’s handwritten United Church of Christ from their Com- One incident in particular would be- gets of the White supremacists’ sniper’s notes before 2012 when the National mission on Racial Justice. A local pastor come a defining event in this period of fire — as arsonists, and for the subsequent Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), of a Black Church, Rev. Eugene Temple- Wilmington’s history: The firebombing of assault on law enforcement officers. United Church of Christ and NAACP called ton, requested help from the United Mike’s Grocery Store, a White-owned busi- Additionally, chief prosecutor Jay again for pardons of innocence for the Church of Christ. ness in the heart of Wilmington’s Black Stroud feigned sickness following jury se- Wilmington Ten. Chavis, a disciple of Rev. Dr. Martin community. lection when it became apparent that ten Prior to this, the publisher of the Wilm- Luther King Jr., helped students organize On Feb. 6, during an uncharacteristi- African Americans would be seated on the ington Journal, Mary Alice Thatch, had a more effective boycott, targeted against cally frigid night for a southern city like jury, leading to a mistrial. A second trial, petitioned the NNPA to launch a national White high school administrators who Wilmington, the popular neighborhood whose jury included only two African campaign for a pardon of innocence for were resisting the desegregation of their grocery was firebombed. As police and Americans, resulted in a guilty verdict for the Wilmington Ten. schools and classrooms and who also re- firefighters arrived on the scene, gun fire all ten defendants. “It was pretty shocking stuff,” Tyson fused demands to honor Dr. King, who was could be heard above the siren squeals. With sentences that ranged from 15 remarked. assassinated just three years earlier. Firefighters responding to the fire, al- years to 34 years, Chavis, Patrick, and the He said the names of at least six poten- One year after King’s murder, the city leged that they were shot at from the roof eight others were ordered to serve a com- tial jurors had “KKK Good!!” written next had just three high schools. Two of them, of the nearby Gregory Congregational bined 282 years in prison. to them. Next to a woman’s name, it said, New Hanover and Hoggard were all-White, Church. Chavis and several students had In 1977, Amnesty International cited “NO, she associates with Negroes.” and the third, Williston Industrial High been meeting at the church. Sniper fire, the Wilmington Ten case as the first offi- On the back of the legal pad, the chief School, was reserved for the city’s Black which was intended for the Wilmington cial case of political prisoners in the prosecutor, Jay Stroud, had written the high schoolers. Williston was a source of Ten’s members, struck a police officer. United States. Within a year, the London- advantages and disadvantages of a mistri- community pride and was ranked among One of the Wilmington Ten, Marvin based human-rights group declared that al, Tyson said. One of the advantages was the best high schools in North Carolina — “Chilly” Patrick, was shot as he placed the Wilmington Ten were “prisoners of a fresh start with a new jury. Black or White. himself between the source of the conscience who were not arrested for the In 2012, 40 years after they were un- Following federally mandated school sniper’s fire and Chavis, successfully pre- crimes for which they were charged, but justly convicted, North Carolina Gov. Bev- desegregation in 1969, local administra- venting Chavis from being shot. because of their political work.” erly Perdue officially pardoned the tors changed the status of Williston Indus- According to the February 1971 edition The New York Times published an arti- Wilmington 10. trial High School from a high school to a of “This Month in North Carolina History — cle noting that Amnesty International’s “These convictions were tainted by junior high school. Williston’s Black stu- The Wiliminton Ten,” the North Carolina declaration about the Wilmington Ten out- naked racism and represent an ugly stain dents and teachers would be reassigned to governor called up the North Carolina Na- raged some and embarrassed others – es- on North Carolina’s criminal justice sys- New Hanover and Hoggard. tional Guard, whose forces entered the pecially after Amnesty International was tem that cannot be allowed to stand any However, when they arrived at their church on February 8 and found it empty. awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. longer,” Gov. Perdue said at the time. new schools, African Americans endured The violence resulted in two deaths, six “Soon the charge was repeated and “Justice demands that this stain finally be name-calling, racially motivated physical injuries, and more than $500,000 amplified by the American Ambassador to removed.” attacks and other threats. Incidents of the United Nations, Andrew Young, who ELLISON LAW, plc Family Law 26677 West Twelve Mile Road Probate Law Southfield, Michigan 48034 Wills & Trusts Brian Martin Ellison, Esq. Attorney and Counselor at Law Phone: (248) 890-3015 ~ Email: [email protected] ~ Fax: (248) 358-6901.

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