How one Wilmington bus tour honors 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

One 76-year-old University of Delaware student had an idea.

Karen Ingram had been cultivating interest in a particular chapter of Delaware history long before she enrolled. Now, about to earn her first master's degree this spring, almost all of her academic writings have surrounded this history. Her own experience led her to it. And this weekend, she got to share that passion on "The Trail to Desegregation."

Ingram, empowered by community partners for a final capstone project, marked the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision with a bus tour. It would trace Delaware's own roots in this landmark desegregation ruling, as the sold-out Saturday tour made stops at Redding House Museum and Community Center, Howard High School, Claymont Community Center and Hockessin Colored School #107C.

"I wanted to tell the whole story," Ingram said, knowing people rarely get to put all these pieces together. "That is what got us here. I wanted to tell the whole story, on a half-day ride on a bus."

By Saturday morning, some 40 people would pack that fitting school bus in front of now-Howard High School of Technology, once the only high school serving Black students in the state and one of the earliest in the nation. Seats filled with fellow organizers, members of the public and a few special guests.

And while the bus rolled down the street, these Delaware institutions have quietly weaved their own way into well-known national history. Seemingly everyone understands the Brown v. Board of Education decision, eventually stripping the country of its "separate but equal" doctrine, to be one of the most seminal cases in American history.

But many might need a reminder of how closely Delaware is tied to the same story.

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Reclaiming connections

Ingram has been hungry to learn more about this history.

Coming to Delaware as a young woman, the New Jersey native took a job working as a legal secretary for Louis L. Redding in 1968, first as a Goldey-Beacom College co-op student. The Wilmington powerhouse lawyer and civil rights advocate had helped lead the legal team on two cases challenging school segregation in Delaware, then at the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board.

Only, as a 21-year-old, Ingram didn't realize it. She left the work for a corporate job, hoping for better benefits.

"I did not know at the time being, you know, that the man who I was working for was very powerful," Ingram recalled. In fact, growing up in New Jersey, in school, in early years of corporate work, she was often in majority-white spaces.

"I did not realize that I lacked a lot of knowledge in African history, of my African American history," she said. "So, I had an opportunity to go to the University of Delaware, and my focus was on African American subjects."

Working within community organizations, earning a bachelor's in her 50s, this master's before 80, soon going for her doctorate — she has been soaking up as much as she can ever since. And rather than write a thesis for her program, Ingram decided to create a project to honor Redding’s legacy.

It started by getting on the bus.

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'The Trail to Desegregation'

The family home of Ingram's once-boss is more than a house today.

Tour takers saw a Redding House Museum and Community Center maintained by its own foundation, now also a historical landmark located near downtown Wilmington. After rehabilitation that followed in 1997, it looks to honor Redding’s legacy, one of impact on civil rights, community and law.

During the more than 50 years that he practiced law in Delaware, according to the foundation, the state's first Black attorney handled cases that challenged discrimination in housing, public accommodations, employment and criminal justice.

Redding's two Delaware cases would consolidate with four other cases, now collectively remembered as Brown v. Board of Education. Those cases were Bulah v. Gebhart and Gebhart v. Belton.

"Does anyone know why we're on a bus?" Ingram posed from the front, looking back at her tour as it moved along.

Everyone got the idea. In 1951, the families of Ethel Louise Belton and Shirley Barbara Bulah hired Redding in two separate cases, suing the state for refusing to provide transportation to attend the schools closest to their homes. Belton was required to attend Howard High School, a forced 20-mile round trip on public transportation, while living just blocks from all-white Claymont High. Bulah attended Hockessin Colored School #107-C, even though a white school would have been much closer for the 7-year-old.

Now Claymont Community Center, the high school once housed the "Claymont Twelve," a group of Black students who successfully integrated the school under court order in 1952, according to organizers, despite the Delaware attorney general's instructions not to do it.

Most further desegregation ceased until cases made their way through the Supreme Court. And, though the coming decision called for "immediate" stop to segregated schools, the reality would play out much more slowly. In Delaware, school segregation in some areas persisted until the late '60s.

Hockessin Colored School #107C ceased operations after desegregation. After a rocky road, the school has now been restored and transformed into a Center for Diversity and Social Equity. In 2022, President Joe Biden protected the site, having signed a law incorporating Hockessin Colored School #107 into the National Park System among other additions.

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“The Trail to Desegregation: A Journey to Freedom and Equality” — Ingram's project coming together thanks to help from Delaware Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Delaware Heritage Commission, the Delaware Historical Society and more partners — followed these markers in a loop, while speakers and tours padded it with historical context.

The cases they traced went on to reshape education across the country, even as new challenges persist today. Students, families, communities in Delaware helped fuel this May 17, 1954, decision finding racial segregation in schools unconstitutional in the United States.

Ingram hopes people take that with them, maybe even fueling future tours.

"In the '50s, people were not supposed to be an advocate for their rights; they were just supposed to let things be the way they are," she said. "So I'd like to think that people will know: There is an opportunity for anybody who wants to change things. They can do that."

Got a story? Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online/The News Journal and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on X @kpowers01.