Wilmington’s Black Community And The Delaware Way: Conclusion
Editor’s Note: Written By Mark Brunswick:
This is my last post on Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s 1924 essay, ‘Delaware: A Jewel of Inconsistencies.’
There is an interesting nugget in the essay,
“The Delaware Negro, by the way, has the reputation of being a, “bad actor” when he gets started. Whether this has anything to do with the conservative attitude of the white citizenry,deponent sayeth not”.
There are elements of duplicity in all of Wilmington political life. Some are particularly malformed and vibrant in the Black community. Election days are big paydays. Street money flows from many crossroads. Street workers eat from an election day menu. Afterwards, a small number of Black politicos eat from a secret menu based on their roles as selected officials or ‘influencers’. The Delaware Way creates a corrupt foundation with all of this.
After the Civil War, there was no Reconstruction effect in Delaware. While Reconstruction brought new citizens into local, state and federal government, it would not be the case in Delaware. There was no sentiment favoring the rise of Freedmen, now citizens, in government without a degree of social control. The ability to control the politics of Black Wilmington is still an important feature of The Delaware Way.
“BUT Delaware is the only state in the Union where a colored man may not practice law. There is no law against it, merely custom and maneuver.”
…Delaware never calls a Negro to a jury, except to serve on a coroner’s jury of a Federal jury.
The combination of no Negro lawyers and no Negro jurymen has resulted on the nolle prose of cases where shrewd Negro malefactors threatened to import their own counsel or stand by their constitutional rights of being tried by their own peers.”
This was written five years before Louis L. Redding was the first Black lawyer admitted to the Delaware Bar. His Wikipedia entry states that he was the only Black lawyer here until 1954.
The significant absence of Blacks in the legal profession has had far reaching consequences. Lawyers are involved in more than criminal defense matters. Membership in the bar allows for civil and criminal representation, advocacy and policy development. There is no major Black law firm in Delaware with the facility to handle criminal and civil matters or weighs in on matters on a significant scale.
“There are no Negro policemen in the city of Wilmington.”
“There are no Negro firemen in the city of Wilmington”
While there was probably some marginal presence in city hall, I suspect that this was the condition throughout city government. There was no ability for the Black community to participate in policy and policies were not particularly geared for the advancement of the community.
In many ways, these are the foundations for the Wilmington we have today. We have had three Black mayors. Not one has taken a role in creating equitable participation for the community in the fruits of development. Instead, the Black community sees contracts awarded to sycophants, marginal opportunities and a legacy of front companies working with larger contractors. The residents of Southbridge successfully negotiated a meaningful community benefits agreement with a developer only to have city leadership say, “We don’t support this. Our developers have a better plan.” There was not even the counter offer of a better plan from the city’s developers; just the Delaware Way—we change the rules when we need to.
Wilmington City Council is paralyzed. They have a terror of addressing public safety and other substantive policy. In the early 90s, the FOP took the lead in getting the General Assembly to change Wilmington’s residency laws because they felt it was too dangerous to live among the people they policed. The FOP does not have the voter numbers to control city politics but they control policing policy.
Housing is a mess. The Land Bank is a slow motion disaster. Not to worry, the developers are building housing for a population which, by the next census, will be more present in city politics.
Council leaders are sitting back waiting to see who will be anointed as the next mayor. That is, if the current mayor decides to retire.
Of course, we have other elected officials who are more than willing to shill for the development czars as long as campaign contributions come their way. That’s The Delaware Way.
That last paragraph–Stephanie Bolden, Darius Brown, add more names. Certainly Deb Heffernan, who represents Edgemoor, and has sold out the residents and the aquatic life at the behest of Delaware’s Sec’y of State and, of course, campaign contributors Buccini-Pollin.
“BUT Delaware is the only state in the Union where a colored man may not practice law. There is no law against it, merely custom and maneuver.”
A lot of the continuing “Delaware Way” is explained in this sentence. It is the custom.
Great story, look forward to your next piece
Really digging this new local history commentary.
Just wrapped with Haneef on the Southbridge zoning saga. See also Amanda Fries (very good piece) ⤵️
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2022/07/25/wilmington-opposition-to-southbridge-project-surprised-residents-developers/65379805007/
Podcast drops tomorrow. Demonstration is Monday noon. Details coming.
We need to start pushing back harder on this stuff. Imminent domain getting shit canned in the manner it did was a good start.
Particulars of the place of the pushback on Monday, please. Thanks.
How do I find the podcast?
The Rev will let us know. You needn’t worry about that…
Mark B. Hit me up anytime.
https://www.patreon.com/TheHighlandsBunker
(Also available via Apple Podcasts on iTunes.)
Check out Amanda Fries Twitter thread on the subject she adds some color that makes me cringe when I look at my Real Estate License.
There is an alternate story to how the residency rule was changed for Wilmington cops which I learned while on the Board of the People’s Settlement House at 8th and Lombard..
Then House Rep. Dennis Williams’ kid was a Wilmington cop when he was arrested off duty for a traffic violation which exposed the fact that he was not living in the city as required. Dennis, a former city cop himself, pled with the DEMs’ caucus to help orchestrate the change to the Charter rule to get his son out of trouble but they wouldn’t get involved in city politics by taking control of this charter change. The House was controlled by the GOP at the time and they played ball.
Sills did great work with the Clinton era block grants. He had come to Wilmington to be Exec. Director of the People’s Settlement Assoc. and had to walk the East Side to tell Blacks they were welcome in the building.
Fanciful history. Dennis did not have the clout. I was in Leg Hall when White Wilmington cops came in their battle gear to beg for the safety of their families. Peoples Settlement Association is another situation. The board abandoned the community years ago. Another candidate vying with Sills for the job at the time was Stokley Carmichael. I believe Mr. Carmichael would have walked the community with a different message.
You sort of proved the point. You were there to witness the implementation of the law change and saw the police in there lobbying for the change (and evidently obviously racist in their commentary? )
Dennis didn’t have the clout to get the party to support changing the city charter but there’s nothing in your story that contradicts that Dennis may have been the catalyst that got the ball rolling.
Did you hear that story contemporaneously, or was it after Williams became mayor?
It was while he was still State Rep. in the mid 2000s.
He was on the People’s board making mischief with his cousin Charles Potter who were both voted off at one point.
Helene Keeley was the area rep and Harris McDowell was the senator and Potter couldn’t stand that. It got very weird as Harris was the “angel” protecting /contolling? the organization. You might remember the crazy shit that was happening at WDEL around that time with Jerry Fulcher on the air stirring it up for Potter who campaigned against Harris for the seat.
My concern is that this makes it all sound like the work of one person, when the police union had been bitching about this from the moment the policy was implemented (there was no residency requirement before and after there was a residency requirement; it’s a political ping-pong ball).
Podcast is up. Demonstration is noon on Monday. Spencer Plaza across from the Mayor’s office.
https://mobile.twitter.com/HighlandsBunker/status/1555538973010935811