Brown v. Board of Education
Delaware's legacy
Belton v. Gebhart – Bulah v Gebhart
1952
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, overruling the high court’s 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed “separate but equal” public facilities in America.
Delaware played a key part in the Brown decision. In 1950, as a prelude to Brown, Louis Redding – at that time the only African American attorney in Delaware – persuaded Vice Chancellor Collins J. Seitz, Sr. of the Delaware Court of Chancery to enjoin the University of Delaware from considering race in its admission decisions. Then, in 1951, Redding sued the State of Delaware challenging the “separate but equal” doctrine as applied to public education. Those cases, known as Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart, were once again heard by now Chancellor Collins J. Seitz, Sr.
As a state court judge who could not overrule U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Seitz nonetheless remarked that segregation itself resulted in unequal educational opportunities for African American students. But applying Plessy, which was binding on him, he found the schools for Black students grossly inferior to the white schools. The remedy he ordered was immediate admission of the Black students to the white schools. According to a leading civil rights icon at the time, Seitz’s decision was the first real victory in the courts for opponents of segregation.
After the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Seitz’s decision, the State of Delaware appealed the cases to the United States Supreme Court. The Delaware cases were part of the Brown v. Board of Education appeal. Of all the cases appealed as part of Brown, the case from Delaware was the only case affirmed by the country’s highest court. In the Brown decision, the Justices agreed with Chancellor Seitz that segregation itself resulted in unequal treatment and therefore violated the United States Constitution.
Below are some resources related to those cases and the Chancellor’s opinion.
Court documents:
Original Belton complaint and answer
Original Bulah complaint and answer
Chancellor Seitz's original 1952 opinion and order
The 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision
The Delaware Judiciary and the Delaware Bar gathered on May 17, 2024 to mark the role Delaware played in the historic Brown case by reenacting a key portion of the testimony in the Delaware case Belton v. Gebhart.
Return to Hockessin Colored School No. 107C
New Castle County Delaware and Bowstring Studios partnered to tell the story of the critical role played by Hockessin Colored School (HCS) No. 107C in desegregation in the United States, and how that piece of history was preserved. HCS 107C was built as a one-room schoolhouse to serve Black children who were not allowed to attend school with white children
Bulah & Belton at 70
Court of Chancery 230th Anniversary Celebration
The keynote address delivered on November 30, 2022 by Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, Collins J. Seitz, Jr., reflecting on the role of his father, Chancellor Collins J. Seitz, Sr., in desegregating public schools in Delaware.