"Louis Lorenzo Redding" {October 25,1901-September 28,1998}

Was born in Alexandria,Virginia to parents Lewis Alfred Redding and Mary Ann (Holmes)Redding,they moved to Wilmington,Delaware during his childhood.The Redding family resided at 203 East 10th Street in the heart of Wilmington's African-American community.Louis attended segregated public schools and graduated from Howard High School(the only high school for African Americans in the state at the time)in 1919.He subsequently enrolled at Brown University and graduated with honors in 1923.After College,Louis became vice principal Fessenden Academy in Ocala,Florida and later taught at Morehouse College in Atlanta,Georgia in 1925,he entered Harvard Law School.He was the only African American in Harvard Law'1928 graduating class.Louis was admitted to the Delaware bar in the following year.In 1929,Louis became the first African American lawyer in Delaware.He was the first African American admitted to the Delaware bar,was of the NAACP legal team that challenged school segregation in the Brown v.Brown of education case in front of the U.S.Supreme Court.In 1950,Louis compiled a case against the University of Delaware,which barred African American students.The university's chancellor,wanting to avoid a trial,decided to desegregate,becoming the first federally funded institution to do so.He also presented legal arguments that provided for the desegregation of schools in Claymont and Hockessin in 1952.In 1954,Louis assisted Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall,legal counsel for the NAACP,in Brown v.the Board of Education case,which down the "separate but equal"system of public school segregation across the the country.These are but a small portion of the many great deeds that he accomplished in the his lifetime.Louis fought to open schools and housing for minorities.The Louis L.Redding intermediate school in Middletown,Delaware was renamed for him.In 2000,the university of Delaware established the Louis L.Redding Chair in their School of Education.In 2009,the Redding House Foundation opened Redding House Museum in his childhood home Wilmington.