In 1951, the families of Ethel Louise Belton and Shirley Barbara Bulah hired Louis L. Redding, the state’s first Black attorney, to represent them in two separate cases as they sued the state for refusing to provide state-funded transportation for their children to attend the schools closest to their homes. Although she lived only blocks from Claymont High School, Belton was required to attend Howard High School, a 20-mile round trip on public transportation. Bulah, 7, attended Hockessin Colored School #107-C (the C stood for colored) even though a school for white children was much closer.
The cases — Bulah v. Gebhart and Gebhart vs. Belton — combined with three others to form Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.
Making the project a reality
Ingram worked for Redding in 1968 as a Goldey-Beacom College co-op student and again later as his full-time legal secretary.
“He was a phenomenal man, and I admire him more all the time,” she said.
Rather than write a thesis for the MALS program, Ingram decided to create a project that honored Redding’s legacy.
The puzzle pieces began to come together when Ingram realized the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling fell during her last semester at UD. Ingram, a member of the Delaware Historical Society’s Board of Trustees, presented the bus tour project idea to Ivan Henderson, the society’s executive director, who agreed to work with her to develop it into a public program.
“One thing led to another,” she said. “It was serendipity.”
Several organizations supported the project, including the Delaware Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Delaware Heritage Commission, the Delaware Historical Society and its Mitchell Center for African American Heritage, the City of Wilmington, and Garland Thompson of State Farm Insurance Company.