Sixty years ago, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, yet despite its inspirational message, the Folcroft riots, triggered by racial tensions, took place in Delaware County shortly after the speech was delivered, writes J.F. Pirro for Main Line Today.

Two days after King’s speech, the Folcroft Riots of 1963 unfolded in Delaware County, a violent backlash against the integration of a Black couple, Sara and Horace Baker, into a white neighborhood.

A crowd of some 1,500—including children and teens—threw rocks, eggs, and fireworks at Sara and Horace Baker. Police, clergy, and NAACP representatives were also targeted.

It was one among several incidents challenging racial barriers in the county. Others occurred in Upper Darby and Drexel Hill.

Closer aligned to the sentiments of King’s speech was the work of Margaret Hill Collins and Suburban Fair Housing, a nondiscriminatory real estate brokerage firm that helped integrate 100 neighborhoods in suburban Philadelphia over a 20-year span beginning in 1956.

The work eventually inspired the passage of Pennsylvania fair housing legislation in 1961 and the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968.

For more detail on the Folcroft riots and local racial struggles at the time of Dr. King’s speech, read the article at Main Line Today.

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