<<Return to State & Local Campaigns Page
BACKGROUND
The 1950s’ civil rights cases Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart were particularly important to desegregation efforts in Delaware. Both cases presented the findings of Dr. Kenneth Clark’s doll experiment, but the trial courts ruled in favor of the separate but equal doctrine. Eventually, both cases were appealed and combined with Brown v. Board of Education (1954). After Brown, in the Evans v. Buchanan (1977) case out of Wilmington, the court held that inner city predominantly black and poor kids did not have the same educational opportunities as predominantly middle class and white children in the suburbs. Delaware decided to fully integrate their school system by merging all districts to create four new districts and by including all students into one large system. After this desegregation order expired in 1996, and the emergence of high performing charter schools that have led to discriminatory practice against minority students, the state has had a decline in integration. There have been recent efforts, including a complaint by the ACLU, to rectify this issue within Delaware school districts.
MEDIA
- Dover, DE — The Civil Rights Problem In U.S. Schools: 10 New Numbers (Jun 7, 2016)
- Dover, DE – Mixed Results for Delaware’s charter schools in 2015-2016 (Jun 10, 2016)
- Dover, DE — Wilmington school redistricting plan battles resistance in General Assembly (May 20, 2016)
- Politico Magazine – How a Young Joe Biden Turned Liberals Against Integration (Aug 4, 2015)
- Newsworks – Wilmington, the city with too many charter schools (July 22, 2015)
- Wilmington, DE – Delaware schools re-segregating, report says (Dec 19, 2014)
- Newark, DE — Racial Disparities in Delaware’s Public Schools Require Attention and Action (May 9, 2014)
- Wilmington, DE –– Milford High’s 1954 integration recalled in program (Feb 1, 2014)
- Smithsonian Institute – Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Educatuon; Delaware: Conflict in a Border State
ADVOCACY
- Wilmington Education Improvement Commission Redistricting Plan and Solutions for Delaware Schools (2016)
- Complaint charging resegregation and race and disability discrimination in Delaware charter schools – (Dec 2014)
- International Business Times – Schools, Race And Integration: Complaint Says Charter Schools Are Resegregating Public Education (Dec 2014)
- ACLU challenges delaware’s segregated charter schools – complaint (Dec 2014)
OTHER RESOURCES
- The Courts, the Legislature, and Delaware’s Resegregation (UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Humanos, 2014)