State of Emergency Declared : Philadelphia Mayor Acts to Halt Racial Protests

Mayor W. Wilson Goode declared a state of emergency in a mostly white neighborhood Friday, saying that he would not allow demonstrations against blacks moving there to escalate into violence.

“I find there is an imminent danger of civil disturbance, which poses a serious, substantial and continuing danger to the health, safety and property of the citizens,” Goode said. Several hundred whites staged protests in the southwest Philadelphia neighborhood on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

“It is time for the city to assume control over the streets in that neighborhood,” the mayor said, adding that the state of emergency will last at least two weeks.

The decree prohibits groups of four or more people “from gathering or congregating upon public highways or public sidewalks or in any other outdoor place in the area,” which is 10 blocks long and about four blocks wide.

Exceptions are made for those waiting to board trolleys or buses, people engaged in recreation or religious activities, and those peacefully entering or leaving buildings.

Blacks Targets of Insults

Residents of the overwhelmingly white, working-class neighborhood took to the streets the last two nights. The demonstrators shouted racial insults against blacks who moved in recently.

The neighborhood was quiet Friday night. About half a dozen undercover police civil affairs officers sat in unmarked cars, and a police cruiser made occasional patrols.

Few residents were on the streets. Young people could be seen in a few clusters of no more than three.

On Wednesday night, more than 400 people gathered in the street outside the home of a black couple and their daughter. On Thursday, city officials and community leaders said a follow-up protest had been canceled, but about 200 people rallied outside the home of an interracial couple and their two children.

“In this historic city, the birthplace of American democracy, it is imperative that I affirm that persons have the right to live in any home they can afford, in any neighborhood of their choice,” said Goode, who is the city’s first black mayor. “I intend to ensure that this right is upheld.”

City officials said they would investigate rumors that real estate agents were engaging in “blockbusting” by going door to door and asking whites if they were ready to sell their property since blacks had moved in.

Vandalism to House

The two new families have indicated they will resist the harassment and stay in the area, where the 1980 census found only 20 blacks living among 7,118 whites.

Carol Fox, who is white, said she and her black husband, Gerald, and their two children never expected the reception they received when they moved into their home on South 64th Street on Sunday. They found holes chopped in the heating and water systems of the house, and evidence of a failed effort to start a fire in the basement.

“If we had known it would be like this we would never have moved here,” she said.