Page 21 - Delaware Lawyer - Issue 1 - 2024

5) Advancing innovation, infrastruc- ture and inclusion strategies that lead to optimization of real estate, people (hu- man capital) and places (i3o).
Since the CDISE’s opening, pro- gramming has provided over 40 events and hosted over 1,500 community members. 107c has received awards and recognition from The Links In- corporated 75th Anniversary Honor- ees, Delaware Contractors Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, Temple University, and NeighborGood Partners. FOHCS also celebrated Hilda Bulah-Morris’s 100th birthday in July 2023 with an Ice Cream Social.
Final Takeaways and Lessons Learned — From Our ‘12-Year Overnight Success’
Most Delawareans do not know and never learned about the monumen- tal role Delaware played in being the first state to end school segregation in 1952, two years ahead of Brown. Most also don’t realize 107c is in their back- yard, and that “but for Bulah,” the U.S. Supreme Court decision unanimously declaring school segregation unconsti- tutional may not have been heard.
The courage that it took for Fred and Sarah Bulah and Attorney Louis Redding to fight Jim Crow laws in the 1950s, at a time when both Blacks and whites did not want to “stir up trou- ble,” is legendary. The former students recounted how the Bulahs were severely impacted by their actions in both the Black and white communities.
The courage that it took for Chan- cellor Collins J. Seitz to rule that 107c and #29 were not “separate but equal” was also legendary for a young white judge in 1952. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. wrote in 1995 for the Villanova Law School Review Volume 40, Issue 3, an article entitled “The Courage of Collins Seitz.” He wrote: “We cannot know how influen- tial Judge Seitz’s views were in bringing
Hilda Bulah-Morris’s 100th birthday Ice Cream Social
DR. DAVID WILK
the Court to its unanimous result in Brown; we can only feel assured that they played a persuasive role. There can be no doubt, however, that Collins Seitz’s acts of courage provided a criti- cal foundation for the further realiza- tion of the equal protection guarantees of our Constitution.”1
We want to express our incredible gratitude to President Joe Biden, Sena- tors Tom Carper and Chris Coons, U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Gov. John Carney, Secretary of State Jeff Bullock, NCC Executive Matt Mayer and NCC Chief Administrative Officer Vanessa Phillips, the Longwood Foundation, the Laffey-McHugh Foundation, the Welfare Foundation, Artesian Water, and everyone else in the community who has contributed to the 107c mis- sion so far. We can’t wait to see what happens from here.
To be able to take a place in Hockes- sin that means so much to our nation’s history, having the privilege of delivering this hallowed place back to the former students, their families and the com- munity at large, and presenting pro- grams that will motivate people to be more inclusive and accepting of others
who are different than they are, is one of the greatest blessings any of us could everhaveinourlifetimes.Thefollowing quote from Lewis Carroll summarizes our feelings: “One of the deep secrets in life is that all that is worth doing is what we do for others.”
FOHCS has dedicated our efforts to ensure the 107c CDISE delivers value, impact and inspiration to the commu- nity, as its history so richly deserves. Although DEI has become much more controversial than when we launched CDISE, we have multiple value propo- sitions that have come out of our jour- ney, and we are only starting to get warmed up.
For those who are interested in par- ticipating in our future impact and value creation activities, we welcome you with open arms because:
“Like a snowball rolling down the side of a snow-covered hill, it’s grow- ing.” (The Temptations, 1965)
NOTES
1. https://digitalcommons.law.villanova. edu/vlr/vol40/iss3/2
ISSUE 1 2024 DELAWARE LAWYER 19