Desegregation in Delaware: Celebrating Brown

These lessons were designed to commemorate the Brown v. the Board of Education decision in 1954 and to highlight the unique role Delaware played in school desegregation and in the Brown decision. The lessons follow the chronology of the significant Delaware cases and tie the Delaware cases to the evolution of our national civil rights laws. There are lessons for grades 9-12. This updated version of the lessons includes a Power Point show for each of the four lessons. The fifth lesson was developed in 2014 and highlights the Delaware Cases Argued in Delaware’s Chancery Court.

The Delaware Law Related Education Center wishes to extend our thanks to Street Law, Inc. for allowing us to link to Landmark Cases web site, to the Delaware Public Archive for allowing us to use lessons developed by the Archives and to link to their digital archives, and to the History of Jim Crow web site for the link to the Brown lesson.

Thank you to Kathleen Doyle for her help in editing and updating the content and literacy standards for the new version of the lessons. The Center is also grateful to Professor Emeritus Robert L. Hayman, Jr. from the Delaware Law School for his help in revising the lessons. Thanks to Professor Leland Ware and Professor Ed Kee of the University of Delaware, Lee Arbetman of Street Law, Inc. and Thomas M. Summers of the Delaware Public Archives for their advice and assistance. We are very grateful for the wonderful scripted mock trial of the Belton v. Gebhart and the Bulah v. Gebhart cases designed by our Board Member, Nicole M. Faries, Esq. Finally, thanks to the Center’s Board of Trustees and to our Board President, the Honorable M. Jane Brady, Judge, Superior Court of Delaware, for support of this project.

Lesson Plans

Lessons contained in the link below:

  • Desegregating the University of Delaware
  • Delaware’s Cases in Brown v. Board of Education
  • Resistance in Milford
  • The Conflict in Implementing Brown
  • Scripted Mock Trial of Belton vs. Gebhart and the Bulah v. Gebhart

Lesson 1: Desegregation of the University of Delaware: Word Document Power Point
Lesson 2: Delaware’s Cases in Brown v, the Board of Education: Word Document Power Point
Lesson 3: Resistance in Milford: Word Document Power Point
Lesson 4: The Conflict in Implementing Brown: Word Document Power Point
Lesson 5: Scripted Mock Trial of Belton vs. Gebhart and the Bulah v. Gebhart Word Document Power Point

If you are having difficulty downloading the documents, please right click on the link and select “Save Target As”.