Freedom From Want: Louis L. Redding LbNA #26675
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Add Location| Owner: | Adoptable |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Oct 25, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Hockessin |
| County: | New Castle |
| State: | Delaware |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Planted by: | Otis' Friends  |
|---|---|
| Found by: | PoisonHolly |
| Last found: | Nov 30, 2019 |
| Status: | FFFFFFOFaFFFaF |
| Last edited: | Oct 25, 2006 |
This is the first in what I hope will be a four-part series commemorating the "Four Freedoms" identified by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his January 6, 1941 speech to Congress.
Louis Lorenzo Redding was born October 25, 1901 in Virginia. He grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, where he graduated from the segregated Howard High School in 1919 before going on to earn degrees from Brown University in 1923 and Harvard Law School in 1928. In 1929, Redding became the first Black lawyer in Delaware. Redding's greatest professional triumphs came two decades later, when Redding won a string of civil rights victories in the courts of Delaware (where he still was the only Black lawyer). The University of Delaware became the first university in the country to be integrated by court order, thanks to Redding's efforts.
The landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education, decided in 1954, actually resolved 200 cases from five different states, and not just the dispute in Topeka that had been filed by Oliver Brown. The cases in which Redding (assisted by NAACP lawyer Jack Greenberg) was involved were the only cases in the Brown litigation in which segregation had been challenged successfully at the state level. In preparing the cases for the U.S. Supreme Court appeal, Redding worked closely with the general counsel to the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, who went on to become the first Black United States Supreme Court Justice.
After the Brown decision, Redding went on to challenge the segregation of Milford High School. On September 27, 1954, as Black students were preparing to enroll for the first time at the formerly segregated school, Redding wrote a telegram to Governor J. Caleb Boggs requesting the presence of state police officers "adequate to assure personal safety of eleven children whose admittance to that school last night was confirmed by state board of education." Redding closed his telegram with an optimistic line: "Hope also no occasion for powers of the police will arise." After retiring from the practice of law, Redding became a civic leader.
"What we were doing was not addressed to the purpose of singularly changing lives. We were trying to change the status and experience of a minority of Americans that happened to be Black. We were not trying to change our lives; we were trying to change the opportunities of American citizens." Louis L. Redding died on September 28, 1998. In 2000, the University of Delaware established the Louis L. Redding Chair in its School of Education. A bronze statue was placed in his honor at Wilmington City Hall, where it has been moved into the lobby. A middle school in Middletown is also named for him.
One of Redding's victories that was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court was Bulah v. Gephart, a challenge to segregation in a one-room elementary schoolhouse in Hockessin, Delaware. Sarah Bulah consulted Redding on behalf of her daughter after state officials refused to provide bus service to Black students. In a bitter irony, Sarah Bulah was criticized by friends for bringing the lawsuit, including the pastor of her AME church.
In his opinion in the Bulah case, Chancellor Collins Seitz compared School No. 29, an all-white school, to School No. 107, the "Hockessin Colored School."
"No. 29 is a four classroom building constructed in 1932 at a cost of $ 55,000.00, with a present value of about $ 77,000.00. No. 107 is a one room building converted by a sliding partition into two rooms. It was constructed in 1922 at a cost of $ 21,000.00 and has a present value of $ 13,000.00. This obvious appreciation in the value of the white school, versus the depreciation in the value of the Negro school, reflects, aside from their age, differences in maintenance, upkeep and improvements. Until recently the white school was unlawfully favored in the receipt of State funds. The first six grades are taught at each school. However, at No. 107 each teacher has three grades while at No. 29 each teacher has only two grades. This is significant apart from the overall number of children taught.
No. 29 has a very attractive auditorium, as well as a basketball court, a partial basement which provides storage space and more adequate space for heating and hot water. No. 107 has none of these. The auditorium serves a valuable purpose as the happenings on the occasion of my visit demonstrated.
No. 29 has several of the accepted forms of drinking fountains. No. 107 does not. No. 29 has modern spacious sanitary toilet facilities, while No. 107 has one commode in a very small room which adjoins the space where the children's lunches, the janitorial materials and the school drinking water bottles are kept. No. 29 has a well equipped nurse's office, while No. 107 has only a first aid packet. The fire protection facilities at No. 29 are more numerous than those at No. 107. No. 29 is also superior in other items too numerous to mention.
. . . .
The substantial factors above mentioned, whether viewed separately or cumulatively, lead me to conclude that the facilities and educational opportunities offered at No. 29 are substantially superior to those offered at No. 107."
Chancellor Seitz, who was particularly appalled that the State would not even provide bus service for Black students to attend a substandard school, ordered that School No. 29 be opened to enrollment for all students.
Your search for this letterbox begins at 4266 Mill Creek Road, once known as "Hockessin School # 107C." You may park in the lot here and begin walking North on Mill Creek Road. You will pass a church and mushroom houses on your left before arriving at a Stop sign. Turn left and walk past another stop sign before turning into a park on your left. Follow the paved path past the playground and over a bridge. Take a left at the fork. Just before the path forks again, you will see a break in the hedge on the tree line to your left. Walk a few steps in and sight a two to three trunk tree in the 10:00 position. Lawyer Redding is on the other side of the tree under a SPOS. Watch out for stickers and nettles.
This letterbox was planted on October 25, 2006, the anniversary of Redding's birth. The location is less than ideal, so check back before searching in case I have moved it.
Louis Lorenzo Redding was born October 25, 1901 in Virginia. He grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, where he graduated from the segregated Howard High School in 1919 before going on to earn degrees from Brown University in 1923 and Harvard Law School in 1928. In 1929, Redding became the first Black lawyer in Delaware. Redding's greatest professional triumphs came two decades later, when Redding won a string of civil rights victories in the courts of Delaware (where he still was the only Black lawyer). The University of Delaware became the first university in the country to be integrated by court order, thanks to Redding's efforts.
The landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education, decided in 1954, actually resolved 200 cases from five different states, and not just the dispute in Topeka that had been filed by Oliver Brown. The cases in which Redding (assisted by NAACP lawyer Jack Greenberg) was involved were the only cases in the Brown litigation in which segregation had been challenged successfully at the state level. In preparing the cases for the U.S. Supreme Court appeal, Redding worked closely with the general counsel to the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, who went on to become the first Black United States Supreme Court Justice.
After the Brown decision, Redding went on to challenge the segregation of Milford High School. On September 27, 1954, as Black students were preparing to enroll for the first time at the formerly segregated school, Redding wrote a telegram to Governor J. Caleb Boggs requesting the presence of state police officers "adequate to assure personal safety of eleven children whose admittance to that school last night was confirmed by state board of education." Redding closed his telegram with an optimistic line: "Hope also no occasion for powers of the police will arise." After retiring from the practice of law, Redding became a civic leader.
"What we were doing was not addressed to the purpose of singularly changing lives. We were trying to change the status and experience of a minority of Americans that happened to be Black. We were not trying to change our lives; we were trying to change the opportunities of American citizens." Louis L. Redding died on September 28, 1998. In 2000, the University of Delaware established the Louis L. Redding Chair in its School of Education. A bronze statue was placed in his honor at Wilmington City Hall, where it has been moved into the lobby. A middle school in Middletown is also named for him.
One of Redding's victories that was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court was Bulah v. Gephart, a challenge to segregation in a one-room elementary schoolhouse in Hockessin, Delaware. Sarah Bulah consulted Redding on behalf of her daughter after state officials refused to provide bus service to Black students. In a bitter irony, Sarah Bulah was criticized by friends for bringing the lawsuit, including the pastor of her AME church.
In his opinion in the Bulah case, Chancellor Collins Seitz compared School No. 29, an all-white school, to School No. 107, the "Hockessin Colored School."
"No. 29 is a four classroom building constructed in 1932 at a cost of $ 55,000.00, with a present value of about $ 77,000.00. No. 107 is a one room building converted by a sliding partition into two rooms. It was constructed in 1922 at a cost of $ 21,000.00 and has a present value of $ 13,000.00. This obvious appreciation in the value of the white school, versus the depreciation in the value of the Negro school, reflects, aside from their age, differences in maintenance, upkeep and improvements. Until recently the white school was unlawfully favored in the receipt of State funds. The first six grades are taught at each school. However, at No. 107 each teacher has three grades while at No. 29 each teacher has only two grades. This is significant apart from the overall number of children taught.
No. 29 has a very attractive auditorium, as well as a basketball court, a partial basement which provides storage space and more adequate space for heating and hot water. No. 107 has none of these. The auditorium serves a valuable purpose as the happenings on the occasion of my visit demonstrated.
No. 29 has several of the accepted forms of drinking fountains. No. 107 does not. No. 29 has modern spacious sanitary toilet facilities, while No. 107 has one commode in a very small room which adjoins the space where the children's lunches, the janitorial materials and the school drinking water bottles are kept. No. 29 has a well equipped nurse's office, while No. 107 has only a first aid packet. The fire protection facilities at No. 29 are more numerous than those at No. 107. No. 29 is also superior in other items too numerous to mention.
. . . .
The substantial factors above mentioned, whether viewed separately or cumulatively, lead me to conclude that the facilities and educational opportunities offered at No. 29 are substantially superior to those offered at No. 107."
Chancellor Seitz, who was particularly appalled that the State would not even provide bus service for Black students to attend a substandard school, ordered that School No. 29 be opened to enrollment for all students.
Your search for this letterbox begins at 4266 Mill Creek Road, once known as "Hockessin School # 107C." You may park in the lot here and begin walking North on Mill Creek Road. You will pass a church and mushroom houses on your left before arriving at a Stop sign. Turn left and walk past another stop sign before turning into a park on your left. Follow the paved path past the playground and over a bridge. Take a left at the fork. Just before the path forks again, you will see a break in the hedge on the tree line to your left. Walk a few steps in and sight a two to three trunk tree in the 10:00 position. Lawyer Redding is on the other side of the tree under a SPOS. Watch out for stickers and nettles.
This letterbox was planted on October 25, 2006, the anniversary of Redding's birth. The location is less than ideal, so check back before searching in case I have moved it.