The Delaware Historical Society offers opportunities this summer to learn more about the First State’s role in school desegregation.
The society is presenting a Desegregation Bus Tour once a month through the summer. Visiting four pivotal locations in the state, the tour presents the sometimes-hidden role Delaware played in the struggle to desegregate public education.
Mitchell Center for African American Heritage director Hannah Grantham says many Delawareans may not know about the outsized role the First State played in the fight against school segregation.
“A lot of us don't realize that Brown v. Board of Education was actually a mixture of five different cases from different parts of the country," she says. "And Delaware had two cases that were considered in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.”
One stop is Howard High School, for many years the only Black high school in the state. One of its alumni, Louis Redding, would go on to play a crucial role in the fight for desegregation.
“Louis Redding emerged from Howard High School, became the second African American to graduate from Harvard Law School, and returned to Wilmington to join the NAACP," Grantham said. "He was a huge proponent of ending and challenging desegregation at the grassroots level across the state.”
Redding represented Delawareans in the two key Delaware cases that later became part of the Brown v. Board of Education case decided in 1954 by the US Supreme Court.
The tour also takes attendees to three other significant New Castle County locations. The Delaware Historical Society will offer the tour on June 28, July 12, and August 23. Tickets and more information are at dehistory.org.
