Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 122

As a result of the students of Delaware State College, as it was known then, challenging the laws of segregation, two local cases were later filed and subsequently included in the historic Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954. The black students of Delaware State College were dissatisfied that their college was not given equal services from the state, as was apparent from the numerous services offered at the University of Delaware, which was attended by white students. The separation of services, as supported by the laws of segregation, were challenged in court by the students. On August 9, 1950, Parker v. University of Delaware was filed and the Court of Chancery of Delaware ruled in favor of the plaintiffs (black students from Delaware State). The University of Delaware became the first public university, by court order, to admit black students. This victory made way for the cases of Ethel Belton and Shirley Bulah, who challenged segregation laws for local schools. Both cases received from the Delaware Court of Chancery, and affirmed by the Delaware Supreme court in 1952, a ruling in favor of the black students. Unfortunately, the decision only applied to schools in Delaware. The cases of Belton and Bulah were combined into the Belton v. Gebhart case, which was included among the five cases submitted under Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The Belton v. Gebhart case was the only case with a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.

Lean’tin L. Bracks