Page 10 - Salesianum - Distinguished Gentleman - Summer 2020

NEWS FROM 18TH & BROOM
DESEGREGATING
SALESIANUM AND DELAWARE:
Alfred D. Connell ’52 • Thomas S. Connell ’52
William H. Jones ’54 • James F. Owens ’53 • Frederick Smith ’54
Fred Smith (left) and James Owens (right) at Salesianum’s assembly on Wednesday, November 14.
St. Francis de Sales calls us to do all things in love and nothing through fear.
In 1950, under the leadership of Fr. Thomas A.
Lawless and the Wilmington Interracial Council, Salesianum and four brave families did just that. On Tuesday, November 14, 1950, five African American young men — Thomas and Alfred Connell, James Owens, Fred Smith and Bill Jones — walked through the door at the original Salesianum School on the corner of 8th and West Streets. They were greeted by the principal, Fr. Thomas A. Lawless, the only person other than their parents who knew they were coming.
This seemingly ordinary moment was nothing less than the beginning of the end for segregation in Delaware, the northernmost segregated state in the United States. But this wasn’t the first time Fr. Lawless had attempted to desegregate Salesianum. In the summer of 1947, he invited three African American students to enroll in the fall, but when word got out, his religious superiors, fearing widespread backlash and
Clockwise from top: Alfred D. Connell, Thomas S. Connell, William H. Jones, James F. Owens, Frederick Smith
an exodus of white families, ordered him under his vow of obedience to rescind his invitation, which he did. It took three years until Lawless was ready to try again, but this time he only told the families of the students and instead of having them come on the traditional first day of school, he waited until mid- November, when classes were already in full swing, and had the students show up as if they had been there from the beginning. Other students later echoed that feeling. The rest is history.
In a time of social change and a time of an expanding world, Salesianum and Fr. Thomas A. Lawless welcomed these students when no other Catholic high school or traditional public high school would. It was a true example of doing something ordinary, like going to school, in an extraordinary way. Fr. Thomas A. Lawless later reflected that “I see nothing to apologize for, other than the fact that it wasn’t done years ago.”
In 2018, Smith and Owens returned to Salesianum to speak about their experiences attending the school in the 1950s.
8 DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN | Summer 2020