On February 6th in 1968, white supremacist vigilantes bombed a grocery store and framed a group of Black student activists in efforts to quell a growing student movement in Wilmington, NC.
We honor Black student activists who dared to organize to fight segregation and racial injustice, despite intimidation and state-sanctioned violence!
Harassment and repression spark a student movement
In 1968, Black students faced persistent harassment at newly integrated Wilmington High Schools, particularly Hoggard High. On Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, a delegation requested a brief memorial observance to honor Dr. King from Principal C.D. Gurganus. Their appeal was dismissed. In response, students staged a sit-in to honor Dr. King. Fifteen participants were expelled.
After appealing to Superintendent Heyward C. Bellamy yielded no action, students began a class boycott, quickly drawing hundreds of participants. Boycotting students barricaded themselves inside Gregory Congregational Church as their headquarters. As tensions rose, they called on 23-year-old activist Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr., who had been an assistant to Dr. King, for help.
Protests persist, racist violence escalates
On February 2, students issued their demands with a noon deadline for the following day. The next day, armed white supremacists opened fire on the church and set several businesses ablaze.
Hundreds of Black citizens marched peacefully to City Hall to demand protection, but were again refused. That evening, a motorcade of white vigilantes again fired on the church, wounding Black minister Reverend David Vaughn. As the attacks intensified, an armed cadre joined the students inside.
On February 6, white supremacists firebombed Mike’s Grocery—a white-owned store across from the church used as their staging area. State Highway Patrol and the National Guard were called in and stormed the now-vacated church.
Over three months, they arrested and charged 10 individuals, with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and conspiracy to fire on police and firefighters: Reginald Epps, Jerry Jacobs, James McCoy, Wayne Moore, Marvin Patrick, Connie Tindall, Willie Earl Vereen, Joe Wright, Ann Shepard, and Chavis.
After only three hours of deliberation, the Wilmington Ten were convicted on October 17, 1972. The result? Combined sentences of 282 years, young Black men serving 29-34 year sentences. This injustice was built on a lie: all three key prosecution witnesses later recanted their testimonies. One even admitted he was bribed with a minibike for his testimony.
By 1976, Amnesty International had classified the eight still imprisoned as political prisoners, exposing the true nature of the trial: a tool to intimidate Black student organizers.
The long road to pardon
In 1978, Gov. Jim Hunt commuted the Wilmington Ten’s sentences but declined to grant a pardon. Then, in December 1980, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned all 10 convictions, finding that the “guilty” verdicts were based partly on perjury and prosecutorial misconduct.
In May 2012, Benjamin Chavis and six surviving members of the group petitioned North Carolina governor Bev Perdue for a pardon, which was granted on December 31, 2012. The pardon qualified each of the ten to state compensation of $50,000 per year of incarceration. As four of the Wilmington Ten were deceased before the December 2012 pardons, their families received no compensation.
The struggle continues on!
This Black History month, and every day, we remember the Wilmington Ten, brave students who dared to organize and fight for justice in the face of white supremacist terror and corrupt, complicit state forces. They faced such repression because those in power recognized the potential that students, when organized, have to transform society. Today, as Trump escalates the war on Black America and ICE terrorizes our communities, students must again refuse to be intimidated and organize!
We must honor the Wilmington Ten’s legacy by continuing the fight for Black liberation, racial justice, and the end to state-sanctioned violence in all forms!
