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.’”

STANTON, Delaware (WPVI) — Police in Delaware are searching for the driver who hit a pedestrian and then fled the scene.

It happened around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday on the 1600 block of Telegraph Road in Stanton, New Castle County.

Police say a 44-year-old woman got out of her car to exchange information with another driver after a minor collision.

There was allegedly an argument between the two, and the other driver took off, hitting the woman, according to police.

Police then say the pedestrian was taken to an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Authorities are now searching for the driver, who could be driving a dark-colored newer model SUV, with some reports saying it may be a Honda or Hyundai.

Anyone with information on the driver is asked to contact Detective Belk at Corey.Belk@newcastlde.gov or call (302) 395-8077.

NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Delaware (WPVI) — A vehicle believed to be involved in the burglary of a gun store in New Castle County was recovered on Tuesday, directly across the street from the scene of the crime.

The owner of a gun shop spoke to Action News on Tuesday after his store was burglarized.

He says the Monday morning burglary was nothing short of well-planned and brazen.

“Being right on this highway, in a very secure building, and we’ve got New Castle County Police Headquarters three miles north of us, we’ve got Delaware State Police Troop 2 five miles from us. This was absolutely brazen to even attempt this,” said Bob Miller, owner of Miller’s Guns Center in Wilmington Manor, Delaware.

Investigators say the thief started by stealing a flatbed truck from a facility approximately 10 miles away.

A short time later, just before 2 a.m. Monday, the suspect backed the flatbed into the front of the gun store on Route 13.

The shop’s security system notified the police right away, but a witness told authorities what they would be looking for.

“A passerby actually called and said that they saw a flatbed truck backing into the business,” said New Castle County Police Corp. Richard Chambers.

The thief ended up getting away with an undisclosed number of handguns.

In an odd twist, however, a trail of bricks revealed how the suspect fled the scene down Route 13 southbound.

The flatbed was then recovered more than 24 hours later at a dry cleaner, which was right across the street from the gun shop.

Investigators are now going through surveillance video to determine how, and hopefully why, the suspect returned to the scene without being detected.

Meanwhile, Miller says he is eager for investigators to catch the person responsible.

“I just didn’t think anything like that would ever happen to us,” he said. “We’ve got a really, really good security system and we’ve got surveillance.”

“Very brazen to do what he did, and that may be what gets him caught,” Miller added.

Sources close to the investigation tell Action News that at this point, investigators believe only one person was involved in this heist.

Surveillance video of the incident has not been released to the media, but it is being reviewed by several law enforcement agencies, including the ATF, the FBI, and New Castle County police.

Anyone with further information is asked to contact the authorities.