George also served in public office. He was a member of Wilmington City Council from 1972 to 1974 and then was elected to the Delaware House from 1974 to 1995. He held powerful positions in the House during his many years there, including speaker and chair of the Joint Finance Committee.

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons said in a statement that George was dedicated to education and public service.

“You cannot overstate the importance of Lonnie’s impact on DelTech — how he helped the school lift the Delaware economy and reinforce the First State’s workforce,” Coons said. “If I knew nothing else of Lonnie, I knew how deeply he loved Delaware and the people in it. His selfless service to our state every day should be a model and inspiration to us all.”

Lonnie is survived by his wife Linda Krystopolski George, as well as his children Melanie George Smith, Leana Janukowicz, Natalie George and Oliva Walton and grandchildren.

A celebration of Lonnie’s life will be held June 6 from 5–7 p.m. at the Orlando J. George, Jr. campus of Delaware Technical and Community College.

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.