When gasoline was scarce in 1979, American truckers rioted in Pennsylvania
Political unrest in the Middle East turned into political unrest in the Northeast
It turns out when Americans can’t fill their cars with gas, they get violent.
In Levittown, Pennsylvania, discontent with the fuel shortage of 1979 reached its zenith in June. A mob of angry truck drivers rioted—blocking intersections, vandalizing property, setting fire to automobiles, and fighting with police — in clashes that nearly turned fatal. “There’s a complete breakdown of law and order,” said the local sheriff at the time.
The 1973 oil embargo was still fresh in motorists’ memories by the time a second energy crisis struck just six years later, as they once again faced long lines and closed gas stations. But for truckers, whose take-home pay was being eaten by the rising cost of fuel, the issue was about their very ability to earn a living.
The crisis started with the revolution in Iran, which produced four to seven percent of the world’s oil. Markets went into a commodity-hoarding, price-hiking panic. Gas and diesel prices per gallon rose above the $1 mark in the United States, reaching prices not exceeded until 2008.
Independent truckers were among the most affected by the squeeze, bringing them closer to merely breaking even or financial loss. “Six years ago it cost me $38 to fill up my truck, now it costs $140,” said a Maryland trucker who blockaded a flatbed lot in protest. Truck drivers’ unions went on strike, demanding a change to energy prices to restore their livelihood.
Fuel shortages affected consumers everywhere, especially in the Northeast. Little more than 50 stations operated in Connecticut the weekend of the Levittown riots. In New Jersey, 500 of the state’s 6,000 gas stations were active, and in the New York City area, less than five percent sold fuel.
The scarcity of gas fueled a summer of anger, frustration, and anxiety. During the shortage, gas station employees were forced to expand their responsibilities, becoming not only sellers of fuel but controllers of chaos. Irate customers waited in line for hours, and often faced empty stations before it was their turn at the pump. They yelled at employees and got into fist fights with other drivers. “It’s such a hardship as it is on a dealer,” said a gas station owner. “They expect us to be a policeman, a judge, a rationer, and God knows what else.”
Susan Straight worked at a California Mobil station during the “summer everyone stole gas and the summer I thought I would be killed.” One day, the 18-year-old employee was approached by an angry mob after a delivery tanker filled the station well not with gasoline, but with water. As cars sputtered to a stop on the road within moments, good Samaritans and police were required to keep the near-rioters at bay, saving her from serious violence.
But nothing topped what happened late Saturday, June 23. It began with about 25 truckers blocking a Levittown intersection in peaceful protest of energy prices. They were to be joined by a crowd of exasperated civilian drivers.
The local police force, only 68 people strong, called in reinforcements from nearby Philadelphia and surrounding townships. On the first night, 69 people were arrested; the next day, the number was 129. Bucks County officials declared a state of emergency, prohibiting groups of more than five people from assembling.
Sunday saw the largest mob—comprising about 2,000 people—terrorize the intersection in Levittown known as Five Points. Rioters dragged a car and a van from a gas station parking lot, and set them on fire, adding tires until the flames reached over 20 feet high. When emergency personnel responded to the blaze, some in the crowd threw rocks and beer bottles at them.
Over the chaotic weekend, a farmers’ market stand was destroyed, a post office was vandalized, and its mail trucks were trashed. Three hundred officers were required to quell the riot, and at that law enforcement resources were stretched thin. Overall, 44 police officers and 200 demonstrators were injured, often at the hands of police clubs and dogs from Philadelphia’s K-9 unit. One angry trunk driver drove into a pack of police officers with the intention to run them down. The man succeeded in running over one officer’s hand, and was charged with attempted homicide.
The energy crisis sent the country into the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. It also was a blemish on American foreign policy. America may be a global superpower, but if it must rely heavily on the output of smaller nations thousands of miles away, its authority to negotiate and influence is significantly diminished.
The disorder in Levittown and elsewhere weighed heavily on President Jimmy Carter. In the wake of the riots, the administration drafted a speech for July 5, in which the president was to address the United States’ daily 750,000 barrel oil shortage. Carter placed the blame on OPEC and outlined programs for alternative-fuel research and odd-even rationing, while imploring citizens to rise to the occasion of what was not a material problem but a spiritual one. “We read of (people) being shoved and punched in (a) gasoline line,” a surviving draft of the speech read. “We see reports of riots and shootings in strikes over diesel fuel … And we ask ourselves: Is this the shape of our future? Is this the kind of country we have become? Is this what it is going to be like from now on?” The speech never saw the light of day, but its frankness and its themes carried over to Carter’s famous “Crisis of Confidence” address delivered 10 days later.
Oil companies eventually picked up production, which paved the way for a two-decade petroleum glut. What emerged that summer was a national tension that lay at the intersection of labor, economics, foreign policy, governance, and the national spirit. To Susan Straight, the gasoline attendant, the summer of 1979 resembled The Twilight Zone episode in which a tranquil neighborhood degenerates into disorder and violence following the loss of electrical power. We have not since had an energy crisis as severe as that of 1979, but we stand to be reminded that an internal combustion engine cannot run forever. There will come a time for another energy crisis. The more foresight we have now, the less we will need in terms of spiritual fortitude.
