Marvin Patrick

Marvin “Chilly” Patrick was one of the Wilmington-area Black students involved in the protest movement and school boycott that emerged from conflicts over desegregation and unequal conditions for Black students. He became one of the Wilmington Ten, whose case became a widely publicized example of civil-rights-era legal and political conflict.

Patrick was prosecuted in relation to the February 1971 firebombing of Mike’s Grocery and related allegations of assaults on emergency personnel. Convicted with the Wilmington Ten on October 17, 1972, Patrick received a 29‑year sentence. The convictions were overturned in 1980 by the Fourth Circuit, and North Carolina later issued pardons of innocence to the entire group in 2012.