Allies for Justice

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. Almost two centuries after the Declaration of Independence affirmed that all men are created equal, the laws of the land - especially those governing America's school system - still implied the opposite. Many people are familiar with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, but few people are aware that Brown was actually made up of five separate cases, including a crucial one from Delaware. Louis Redding, Delaware's first Black attorney, was the nation's first attorney to win a public school desegregation case, and Chancellor Collins Seitz, one of the highest-ranking judges in Delaware, became the nation's first judge to suggest that segregation was unconstitutional. Their case became a part of Brown. Without Louis Redding and Collins Seitz, the Brown decision could have turned out very differently. With an engaging narrative style, Kathleen Doyle's Allies for Justice situates the historic fight for desegregation right where Delaware students live. Readers will learn how Delaware history became U.S. history, playing a key role in the heroic story of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.