Wilmington, Los Angeles is a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, California. In 1858, Phineas Banning acquired Wilmington to build a harbor for the city of Los Angeles, and Banning named the new harbor after his birthplace of Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington became a separate city in 1863. In 1909, Wilmington was annexed to Los Angeles, and oil was discovered in 1932. In 2010, Wilmington had a population of 53,815 people, with 86.6% being Hispanic, 6.4% white, 4.8% Asian, 2.6% African-American, and 1.7% other.