Delaware
Delaware’s role vital to school desegregation Supreme Court ruling
Louis Redding — Delaware’s first Black attorney and a lawyer for the NAACP legal defense — argued the two Delaware school segregation lawsuits. In one case, Gebhart v. Belton, eight students were denied entry to Claymont High School while being bused in Wilmington for school. In the second case, third-grader Shirley Bulah was denied the right to ride on a bus that passed by her house everyday with white children to the Hockessin school or attend a white school.
The challenges by Redding and others across the country were part of a coordinated effort by the NAACP to prove segregation was unconstitutional. Black families asked the states to allow their children to attend white schools — only to be told no.
Redding’s arguments were the only ones of all the cases that were successful. Rev. J.B. Redding said her father felt very isolated as an attorney fighting injustice.
“When he first began practicing before the courts, they tried to keep him in the back of the courtroom in the segregated section for Blacks,” she said. “That’s the courage in him — he just refused and came up front.”
Chancery Court Chancellor Collins Seitz heard the combined First State case in 1951. Unlike the four other cases in the Brown decision, Delaware was the only place in the country where the courts ruled in favor of the Black families.
Local historian Lanette Edwards said Seitz is an unsung hero in the landmark Brown ruling.
“If we don’t do anything else, we need to champion that man. Because without him, you don’t have integration in the United States of America,” she said.
Seitz visited the Black and white schools and concluded they were not equal. Seitz’s son, Collins Seitz, Jr., is now a Delaware Supreme Court justice. He said what his father did was unique from what other judges did in the Brown cases.
“He ordered the immediate integration of the Delaware schools,” he said. “Most states said, ‘I will give you time to bring the Black schools up to the level of the white schools.’ My father said, ‘No, justice delayed is justice denied.’”
What is Delaware’s Kalmar Nyckel ship?
Here’s the history of Delaware’s Kalmar Nyckel ship explained in 36 seconds.
The Delaware history column features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and The Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.
100 years ago, The Evening Journal, June 21, 1926
Jealous man kills woman, wounds boy
Oliver K. Higgins, aged 33 years, of Washington Street, in a fit of jealousy late Saturday night, is alleged to have pumped seven bullets from an automatic revolver into Mrs. Edna M. Martin, 40 years old, of Spruce Street, killing her.
Charles Brown, the 15-year-old of Mrs. Gladys Brown, was shot in the jaw and shoulder by Higgins but will recover. Mrs. Brown, also of the Spruce Street address, is the sister of the slain woman. …
Mrs. Martin, who was employed by the Home Baking Company on Market Street, left the store at a late hour Saturday night, accompanied by Paul A. Crawford of Marshallton and went home. They found Mrs. Brown sitting in the dining room with Julius K. Bowman of Newport.
The women and men sat around the table for a short time. At 11:45 o’clock, hearing someone taking out a window screen in the parlor, Mrs. Brown went to the hall to see what caused the noise.
She saw Higgins step in the window with a gun in his hand. She opened the door and ran off the porch.
Higgins failed to see Mrs. Brown and continued to the dining room where Mrs. Martin and the two men were sitting. He leveled the revolver at their heads and said, “Stick your hands up everybody, and I don’t mean maybe.”
Higgins then asked for Mrs. Brown. Learning she had gone out the front door, he ran after her, passing her as she crouched behind a hedge a few feet from the doorway. He returned to the dining room, but the men had fled. He then turned to Mrs. Martin and fired as she ran. …
Leaving the dead woman at the head of the steps, Higgins rushed in the back room in search of Mrs. Brown. Charles Brown, who had been sleeping, awoke because of the noise. …
Hearing the boy going down the stairs, Higgins stepped to the stair rail and shot him twice. …
Mrs. Brown went to the drug store of Otto H. Miller at 22nd and Pine streets to telephone police. …
Officers surrounded the Brown house … and arrested Higgins. …
Higgins met Mrs. Brown several months ago when he was in the employ of the United Cigar Store, and Mrs. Brown was working nearby. He is said to have become jealous over the attention of other men to Mrs. Brown, who is divorced. She asked him to stop annoying her and appealed to police.
After Higgins threatened Mrs. Brown with a gun, she told her employer who called the United Cigar Company and made a complaint to the manager. Shortly after this, Higgins was discharged.
50 years ago, The Morning News, June 23, 1976
Bill would jail parents of delinquent kids
A tough measure that provides for jailing the parents of delinquent children or requiring them to spend weekends with delinquents at juvenile detention centers has been introduced in the Delaware Senate.
The bill is the brainchild of the community-based services staff of the juvenile corrections bureau.
“This gives a way to coax them (the parents),” said John J. Mulvena, juvenile corrections chief. “If not to coax them, to require them. If not require them, jail them.”
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Herman Holloway Sr., D-Wilmington.
Mulvena said it is “directed at parents who are reluctant to participate in the responsible supervision of their children.”
He said due to “stubbornness, ignorance or neglect,” his staff often ends up acting as “mother, father, aunt, uncle or surrogate” for children “while the parents get off scot-free.”
20 years ago, The News Journal, June 26, 2006
Storms wallop Sussex with 6-8 inches of rain
Jack English knew he was in trouble early Sunday morning.
He kept waking up to the sound of his Seaford basement sump pump trying to keep up with the downpour outside….
At first, he found a few inches of water on his basement floor. Then, all of a sudden, his backyard was completely flooded and the rising water blew out his basement window. …
“I was evacuated by the fire department,” he said. …
In six to eight hours, 7 inches fell in Bridgeville, more than 8 inches in Georgetown and nearly 6 inches in Laurel….
The Seaford Fire Company had its first sign of trouble at 7:30 a.m., when a crew responded to a person trapped in a car by rising water. As the morning went on, rescue crews turned to boats.
An estimated 300 people were evacuated from homes at three mobile home parks southeast of Blades.
Meanwhile, in Seaford, concern grew as water levels rose in the Nanticoke River and Williams Pond. As a precaution, 110 residents of Lifecare at Lofland Park rehabilitation center were evacuated to Nanticoke Memorial Hospital. …
At the Seaford Walmart, a team of swift water rescuers from Salisbury, Maryland helped people trapped in the parking lot, with water up to the top of some cars. …
Bridges at Craigs Mill Road and Woodland Road washed out. …
The American Red Cross opened a shelter at Woodbridge High School in Bridgeville. About 30 people were staying there Sunday night.
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
DELAWARE COUNTY, Ind. — All lanes closed on I-69 in the southbound direction in Delaware County on Friday morning.
Authorities with the Indiana State Police were dispatched to the 240.5 mile marker on a report of a crash involving a semi at approximately 8:08 a.m.
All lanes are now open.
-
Washington3 minutes agoSuspect arrested in deadly shooting of 15-year-old girl in Washington County
-
Wisconsin6 minutes agoMissing endangered 24-year-old in Wisconsin, search ongoing
-
West Virginia11 minutes agoNotebook: MCWS as good as advertised; West Virginia no overnight success story – WV MetroNews
-
Wyoming18 minutes agoWith high costs and access gaps, Wyoming’s elder care landscape is ‘in crisis’
-
Crypto21 minutes agoIran Moves to Close the Strait of Hormuz as Tensions Erupt Over Broken Ceasefire Deal
-
Finance25 minutes agoPersonal Finance: SpaceX IPO bends the rules | Chattanooga Times Free Press
-
Fitness33 minutes ago8News tries Pilates exercises for Fitness Friday
-
Movie Reviews41 minutes ago1986 Movie Reviews – Karate Kid Part II and Legal Eagles | The Nerdy
