Spiro T. Agnew and the Burning of Baltimore - Pt. 1

 This is the first in a series of articles about the riots in 1968 Baltimore and Gov. Spiro T. Agnew's response.

Around 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, 1968, a black teenager tossed a brick through a store window in East Baltimore, setting off a riot that consumed the city for days.  When order was restored, six people were dead, 4,474 had been arrested, and over a thousand fires had swept through the city.  The riot served as a test for Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew, who responded aggressively and mercilessly. Many interpreted the governor’s harsh response, particularly the infamous speech in which he blamed moderate black leaders for failing to stop the violence, as a shift from his reputed liberalism to hard-line conservatism. However, a comparison of Agnew’s actions and rhetoric prior to and following the riot reveal the governor was not transformed by the violence in Baltimore but had always held conservative views on civil disobedience.  The Baltimore incident merely provided him the opportunity to show his true colors.  To demonstrate this, I will use newspaper records and Agnew’s papers, including press releases, speeches and private correspondence, to review the riot itself, Agnew’s response, his civil rights record, and his actions and rhetoric concerning civil disobedience prior to the Baltimore riot.

In White Knight: The Rise of Spiro T. Agnew, Jules Witcover documents the widely held view that the Baltimore riot and related events transformed Agnew from a liberal to a law-and-order conservative.  He quotes observers such as state Senator Clarence Mitchell, who remarked, “I was shocked primarily because it had not been his pattern as governor.”Those who saw Agnew’s actions and rhetoric as indicative of a “transformation” noted that Agnew was a product of liberal Maryland with a list of civil rights accomplishments, such as the creation of a human relations commission, support for open housing legislation, and adequate funding for social services programs.  The riot, they argued, shattered Agnew’s affinity for the black community and the movement and so he responded in a harsh manner.  In reality, Agnew had always harbored disdain for civil obedience.  The riot simply provided an opportunity to demonstrate his credentials as a law-and-order conservative.

Law-and-order conservatism is a political philosophy that values social order.  Adherents, such as Agnew, believe that threats to the established political or social orders must be repressed.  The concept finds its origins in the writings of political theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, who wrote that humans can enjoy their lives only if they are in an environment in which they are free from threats.  This stability, Hobbes argued in The Leviathan, is maintained by the state’s imposition of law and order.

BALTIMORE BURNS

When civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, racial tensions escalated throughout the United States.  Unrest broke out in 130 cities and towns across the nation, resulting in widespread physical destruction and the deaths of at least 46 individuals.  Few immediately took to the streets in Baltimore, however, creating an eerie sense of calm before the storm.

The storm broke two days later on Saturday, April 6, when Baltimore erupted into flames.......

The second installment of Spiro T. Agnew and the Burning of Baltimore is available here