Page 10 - Delaware Lawyer - Issue 1 - 2024

FEATURE | BROWN AND THE COURT OF CHANCERY
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Precursors to Brown
Before the Delaware cases that were part of the Brown appeal, in 1950 then- Vice Chancellor Seitz decided Parker v. University of Delaware. Louis Red- ding, a fearless African American Dela- ware lawyer, filed a class action suit against the University. The plaintiffs were students denied admission based on the color of their skin. Redding argued that the University’s policy vi- olated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Consti- tution. The plaintiffs asked the Court of Chancery to declare segregation
unconstitutional and issue an injunc- tion that would force the University to admit African Americans. The case was assigned to Vice Chancellor Seitz — then a relatively new judge on the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Vice Chancellor Seitz recognized that Plessy was the law of the land. As a state court judge, he could not overrule it. But, operating within the bounds of Plessy and “separate but equal,” he compared the educational opportunities at Delaware State Col- lege (now Delaware State University) and the University of Delaware. It was
plain that the schools were grossly un- equal. And instead of taking the po- litically expedient route to allow the State time to equalize the two insti- tutions, he enjoined the University of Delaware from considering race in its admission process.
After the 1950 Parker decision, Vice Chancellor Seitz spoke publicly about the hypocrisy of those who re- vere the United States Constitution but failed to apply its protections to African Americans. In a speech to the 1951 graduating class of Salesia- num School, he pressed the case for a straightforward reading of the Equal Protection Clause:
Many of us would become fight- ing mad were we told that we did not really believe in the great principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitu- tion of the United States. Yet I submit that too many of us talk out of both sides of our mouths at the same time on this impor- tant subject. How can we say that we deeply revere the prin- ciples of our Declaration and our Constitution and yet refuse to recognize those principles when they are applied to the American Negro in a down to earth fash- ion. ...
In 1952, Chancellor Seitz decided the cases that would eventually be- come part of the appeal in Brown. In Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Geb- hart, the Board of Education refused to admit Black students to Claymont High School and Hockessin School #29. Black students were required to attend segregated schools for African Americans — Howard High School and Hockessin School #107c (the c designating “Colored School”).
Once again, Louis Redding and courageous plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of state-imposed
8 DELAWARE LAWYER ISSUE 1 2024