Blackwell demonstrations

A series of demonstrations protesting the killing of black motorist Wendel Blackwell by Deputy Doug Raines took place on the grounds of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office in February 1975.

Blackwell had been shot in the head and killed by Raines on December 22, 1974. It was deemed a justifiable homicide by officials, because Blackwell had apparently possessed a firearm, but members of the black community wanted Sheriff Royal Untreiner to suspend Raines pending a full investigation. When Untreiner refused, several local civil rights leaders, including B. J. Brooks of the NAACP and H. K. Matthews of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, organized demonstrations in downtown Pensacola, boycotted local stores, and met with Governor Reubin Askew to discuss the situation. Nightly protests held at the Sheriff's Department on Leonard and E Streets grew in intensity over the course of three weeks.

On February 24, a crowd of nearly 500 gathered outside the Sheriff's headquarters and began repeating protest chants. Rev. Jimmie Lee Savage reportedly led demonstrators in the chant, "Two, four, six, eight, who shall we incarcerate? Untreiner, Raines, the whole damn bunch!"

Sheriff Untreiner, hearing protesters chanting the word "assassinate" instead of "incarcerate," ordered the crowd to disband. When they did not leave the premises immediately, he sent seventy deputies with nightclubs into their midst.

In the ensuing 15-minute confrontation, at least one person was injured. Thirty-four adults (including Matthews and Brooks) and thirteen juveniles were arrested on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and malicious trespass. Three days later, felony extortion counts were added to the Matthews and Brooks charges, due to the alleged "assassinate" chant.

See also

• Escambia High School riots

References

• Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots: Greenwood Milestones in African American History. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.