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President Joe Biden bestowed three Delawareans with the nation’s second highest honor Thursday. Two of those recipients were integral to the desegregation of the nation’s schools.

Biden said the medals and the story of the United States is about the heart and hard work of the American people.

“The most important title in America is not president, but citizen,” he said. “It’s ‘We the People.’ These are the words that are the rock upon which this entire nation has been built.”

Louis Lorenzo Redding — Delaware’s first Black attorney and Wilmington federal appeals Judge Collins J. Seitz were both honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal posthumously. Earlier this year, Delaware celebrated its role in the 70-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the principle of “separate but equal” in the nation’s  schools.

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court appeal stemmed from four cases in Delaware and other states. The challenges by Redding and others 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, who was also a lawyer for the NAACP legal defense, argued the two Delaware school segregation lawsuits. His arguments were the only ones of all the cases that were successful.

Then Chancery Court Chancellor Seitz heard the combined Delaware case in 1951. He visited the Black and white schools and ruled that they were not equal.

After the Delaware Supreme Court upheld Seitz’s ruling, the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming part of the Brown case. In 1954, the court ruled “separate but equal” was unconstitutional, drawing heavily from the arguments and language from the First State’s case.

Rev. J.B. Redding, Redding’s daughter, told WHYY News at the state’s celebration in May commemorating its contribution to the Brown case that her father was motivated to pursue justice when he witnessed the disparity between Black and white Delawaeans.

“He saw that things were not fair. They were not equal,” she said. “He just was an extraordinarily courageous man. [It] made him want to give the same opportunities to all the people in the area.”

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Delaware ranks among the nation’s most vulnerable states for identity theft and consumer fraud, with New Jersey and Pennsylvania following at 14th and 18th, respectively, in WalletHub’s latest report.

In 2023, U.S. consumers faced an estimated $10 billion in fraud-related losses, the report claims, up $1 billion from 2022, with identity theft playing a leading role.

Data breaches involving major companies like Microsoft, AT&T and Ticketmaster have significantly increased risks, jeopardizing personal information.

WalletHub’s recent study analyzed 14 metrics across identity theft and fraud and uncovered vulnerabilities for 2025. High complaint rates, financial losses and gaps in state-level protections placed Delaware as the second-most vulnerable state due to frequent fraud complaints and substantial financial losses.

Pennsylvania ranked 18th overall, with more than 314 theft complaints per 100 residents and an average financial loss of $8,228 per case. In 2024, the state’s Bureau of Consumer Protection handled over 34,000 consumer complaints and initiated 71 legal actions, including civil complaints, subpoena enforcement and bankruptcy actions.

John Abel, chief deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania’s attorney general, explained that demographic factors play a significant role in the state’s susceptibility to fraud. Pennsylvania has a substantial population of older adults, with an estimated 2.6 million people aged 65 or older according to the U.S. Census data, who are often more likely to engage with scammers.

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Delaware Gov. John Carney has announced a pivotal $17.4 million investment to deliver significant high-speed broadband to more than 5,600 unserved and underserved homes and businesses throughout the state. The funding, provided through the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, marks the latest advance in closing the ongoing digital divide.

This initiative builds on a landmark $110 million investment in 2021, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, which extended high-speed internet to more than 11,000 homes and businesses. That effort prioritized vast rural areas like southwestern Sussex County. Together, these projects aim to achieve universal broadband access, positioning Delaware as a key leader in national connectivity.

“Bringing high-speed internet to all Delawareans has been a priority throughout our administration,” Carney said. “Thanks to this infusion of federal funding made available through the Biden Administration, Delaware will be able to connect more than 5,600 new addresses and remains on track to be the first state to connect every home and business.”

The Delaware Department of Technology and Information, operating through its Broadband Office, conducted a competitive selection process to distribute the BEAD funds. Comcast and Verizon surfaced as the providers most trusted to build the broadband infrastructure to connect communities across the state.

The selection process centered on four core considerations: cost, speed of deployment, workforce development and affordability.