In the Fall of 1954, 17 African American students desegregated Dover High School following the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.
Oral histories, press clippings and photos from the Capital City’s desegregation era will be on display this weekend at The Delaware Public Archives as part of the annual Dover Days celebration.
Tom Summers, manager of outreach services at the Delaware Public Archives, calls the 17 students enrolled in the Capital City’s public high school in the fall of 1954- pioneers.
"There were a lot of young folks, a lot of young African Americans who went through a tough period in order to make a fair education, equal education, available to them, as well as future generations for everybody in America," said Summers.
Doctor Cherrita Laws Matthews, one of the first minorities to graduate from Dover High School recently contributed artifacts for use in the display, which debuted in February.
The exhibition also includes materials from Milford’s troubled desegregation period, one that garnered national media attention when 11 African American students were removed from the the town’s public high school.
Summers says he believes today’s teenagers might be surprised to learn about abut the Milford 11 and the First State’s role in desegregation.
"They’re going to see a part of their history they maybe don’t know that much about," said Summers. "They may also see that this happened in their area, it didn’t happen just in Little Rock, Arkansas which they probably get in their history class- but it also happened in Dover, Delaware, in Milford, Delaware and places around here.
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark case on school segregation. The Supreme Court combined five cases including one from Delaware, Gebhart v. Belton, into the single case which eventually became Brown v. Board of Education. The Gebhart v. Belton case was actually the combination of two lawsuits brought, Belton v. Gebhart which involved students from Claymont and Bulah v. Gebhart which involved students from Hockessin.