The 1968 Tallahassee riots were one of many riots that broke out after Martin Luther King was assassinated in Tallahassee, Florida lasting from April 5–7, 1968. It was originally a student protest but later became a riot as a result of the rage and anger of participants. The riot happened at Florida A & M University but unrest would be seen to a lesser extent in the Frenchtown neighborhood.
Background
City overview
Tallahassee was described as having a population of about 68,000 with 25% of the population being African-American in 1968. It was also Florida's state capital.
There were two state universities in the city: Florida State University (FSU) and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU). FAMU was a historically black university while FSU was an all white university until 1962. The hospital at FAMU's campus started to lose federal funding in 1965 because the university's hospital was not admitting white patients despite most of the staff being white. Tallahassee Memorial Hospital eventually started to admit black patients to try and not lose federal funding which led to drawing away middle-class African American patients who could pay and had the right insurance coverage to choose TMH over FAMU's hospital. The hospital began to fall into bad financial grounds as it could not attract patients who were either white or African American. In 1967 the county and municipal government took over control of the hospital. The hospital itself became a point of contention for students, alumni and faculty at FAMU who felt that the University's President William Gore, Jr. did not fight hard enough in their eyes to protect the hospital. Also in 1967, there were talks of merging the university with FSU. By February 1968 students had created several black power groups and created a student newspaper named UHURU as they felt the university needed to be protected.
Civil Rights Movement
Tallahassee saw action during the Civil Rights Movement. The 1956 Tallahassee bus boycott was eventually successful in desegregating the bus system in the city. What caused the boycott was when 2 African-American students from FAMU, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrier Patterson sat in the whites only section where there was the only 2 vacant seats left and were asked to either move to back of the bus and stand in the back or leave the bus without getting their fares back. Starting on May 28 the boycott ran until December 22.
A chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality was created at FAMU after two students from there went to the University of Miami during the summer of 1959 and entered a chapter at a CORE workshop at the University of Miami and ended up bringing it back to FAMU. After the CORE chapter was created, a series of events like picketing and sit-ins were done by them with mixed results. The events did not receive that much publicity and there is little known about them.
Sit-ins
There was a series of sit-ins protests in the city between 1960 and 1961. The sit-ins began on February 13, 1960 when a combination of 8 high school and FAMU students held a sit-in at a local Woolworth store's counter for 2.5 hours that day. No arrests were reported in the sit-in that day. Another sit-in was held on February 20. This time 11 students participated and a police squad led by the mayor asked them to leave. The protesters refused and were arrested. Reverend Daniel B. Speed bailed the students out and the protestors were arrested under the charge of disturbing the peace by riotous conduct along with unlawful assembly. They were all found guilty in court and were offered the option of paying a $300 fine or doing 60 service days. All but three of the students chose service.