Louis L. Redding

Louis Lorenzo Redding (October 25 1901 – September 28 1998) was a prominent lawyer and civil rights advocate from Wilmington, Delaware. Redding, the first African American to be admitted to the Delaware bar, was part of the NAACP legal team that challenged school segregation in the Brown v. Board of Education case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Background

Redding was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to parents Lewis Alfred Redding and Mary Ann (Holmes) Redding, but moved to Wilmington, Delaware during his childhood, where he lived on Walnut Street in Wilmington's east side and attended Howard High School (the only high school for African Americans in the state at the time). After earning a bachelor of arts from Brown University in 1923, he became vice principal of Fessenden Academy in Ocala, Florida, and later taught at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Redding went on to earn a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1928. Redding was married twice - first to Ruth Albert Cook Redding (whom he divorced) and then to Gwendolyn Carmen Kiah - and had three daughters - Ann, Rupa, and Judith. After his death in 1998, the University of Delaware established the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy.

Career

In 1952, Redding presented the case for desegregating schools in Claymont and Hockessin. In 1954, he presented the Delaware case of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1950, he compiled a case against the University of Delaware, which barred black students, but in order to avoid a trial, the university's Chancellor decided to desegregate, becoming the first federally-funded institution to do so.

References

* [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2214/Louis_Redding_a_Delaware_legend The African American Registry:Louis Redding, a Delaware legend!]
* [http://www.udel.edu/BlackHistory/diamonds.html Diamonds of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore: Seven Black Men of Distinction]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/Messenger/99/2/louis.html Louis L. Redding honored with endowed professorship]