First State Heritage Parks hopes to illuminate Delaware’s unique role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act this weekend.
As part of its First Saturday program, a number of lectures will detail some of the unique characters and events that either influenced or were influenced by the Civil Rights movement in America.
Sarah Zimmerman is the interpretive program director with First State Heritage Parks. She said Delaware’s unique geographic location made the state both a tense and pivotal location for that movement.
"We are north, south, and east of the Mason Dixon line if you look at it. Desegregation took a very long time, and in Milford it was actually quite tense. So Delaware had a really tough fight when it came to Civil Rights."
Zimmerman also said that one legal case in particular, Gebhart v. Belton, lead to the landmark Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. That original case in Delaware also helped to shape later debates on Civil Rights in the United States.
"The Civil Rights Act may not have not come about if not for some in Delaware bringing this to light," she said.
2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2 of that year.
Programs and lectures will take place throughout the day Saturday, January 4, at the John Bell House and the Old State House on The Green in Dover. For more information on specific lectures and activities that day, visit the park's website, here.
This program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
