|
Gebhart v. Belton (Court citation:33 Del. Ch. 144) was one of the four cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954, officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools. Court citation is a standard system used in common law countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters. ...
Holding Racial segregation in public education violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; separate facilities are “inherently unequal. ...
The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...
1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Racial segregation is a kind of formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race, characterized by the races separation from each other. ...
Public education is schooling provided by the government, and paid for by taxes. ...
Gebhart was originally filed in Delaware and was originally litigated by lawyers Jack Greenberg and Louis Redding under a strategy formulated by Robert L. Carter of the NAACP. Greenberg had assisted Carter at the original hearing of Brown. State nickname: The First State Other U.S. States Capital Dover Largest city Wilmington Governor Ruth Ann Minner Official languages None Area 6,452 km² (49th) - Land 5,068 km² - Water 1,387 km² (21. ...
Jack Greenberg (born 1924) is a American attorney and legal scholar. ...
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States that advocates black power. ...
Gebhart is unique among the four cases in that the original judge, the federal district court judge, and the Supreme Court found for the plaintiffs. The district court judge had ruled that the Negro students should be admitted to the white high school. The judgement of the district court was upheld by the Supreme Court. In the other three "Brown" cases, the district court decision was overturned.
Delaware legal context
Delaware was one of the 17 states which required school segregation prior to Brown.  Educational segregation in the US prior to Brown Section two of the Delaware state constitution specifies that in regard to the apportionment of funding for education: - ... no distinction shall be made on account of race or color, and separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained.
A 1935 state law further specifies that: - The schools provided shall be of two kinds; those for white children and those for colored children. The schools for white children shall be free for all white children between the ages of six and twenty-one years, inclusive; and the schools for colored children shall be free to all colored children between the ages of six and twenty-one years, inclusive. ... The State Board of Education shall establish schools for children of people called Moors or Indians...."
The case As heard by the Supreme Court, Gebhart combined two cases.
Belton v. Gebhart was brought by Ethel Belton and six other parents of eight negro high school students in Claymont, Delaware, who were forced to send their children to a run-down segregated high school in Wilmington rather than a school in their community. Many African-American students rode the public bus (not a school bus) nearly an hour to attend Howard High School. The school was over-crowded, located in the industrial area of town, and sorely lacking in educational areas. Howard High School was Delaware’s only business and college preparatory high school for African Americans and served the entire state. Meanwhile the high school in Claymont was well maintained in a picturesque setting with spacious facilities. In addition to the issue of distance; class size, teacher qualifications in terms of advanced degrees, and the incomplete curriculum also angered African American parents. Further, once at Howard, students interested in vocational training courses had to walk several blocks to the run-down Carver annex to classes offered only after the end of the normal school day.
Bulah v. Gebhart was brought by Sarah Bulah, who had made several attempts to convince the Delaware Department of Public Instruction to provide bus transportation for her child Shirley Barbara Bulah and other black children in the town of Hockessin. Particularly galling was the fact that a bus for white children passed her house twice a day, but would not pick up her daughter while she had to drive Shirley two miles to an old one-room schoolhouse designated for African American children. Sarah Bulah wrote to the Department of Public Instruction and to the Governor. Their replies reaffirmed that no bus transportation would be provided because "colored" children could not ride on a bus serving white children.
These parents sought representation from Louis Redding, a local lawyer who was Delaware's first black attorney. He suggested that they petition their all-white neighborhood schools on behalf of their children. The children were denied admission and in 1951, the cases Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart were filed. The cases named the individual members of the State of Delaware Board of Education. Francis B. Gebhart was the first named, and thus the cases became Belton et al v. Gebhart et al At the state’s request the cases were heard at the Delaware Court of Chancery rather than the U.S. District Court. Jack Greenberg from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. assisted Redding with the case.
In a groundbreaking decision, Judge Collin Seitz,the Chancellor ruled that the plaintiffs were being denied equal protection of the law and ordered that the eleven children involved be immediately admitted to the white school. The board of education, however, appealed the decison. Delaware was the only case of the four combined into Brown that achieved relief for the plaintiffs at the state level. The decision did not strike down Delaware’s segregation law. The decision was upheld on appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware by justices Southerland, Wolcott and Carey.
References |
Feeds |
Contact