Racism in Delaware from the Civil Rights Movement to Today
Ashley Miller
Introduction
History is fascinating. Learning about what happened before and how it has led to where we are today gives you a closer connection and understanding of the here and now. Nothing happens in a bubble, isolated from everything, and there is always more to the story than what one person tells you or one version that you read. In a small state like Delaware, most students have been able to visit different parts of the state or have an understanding of the areas. For their background in history, students have learned about the generalities of the Civil Rights Movement but not anything about what impact Delaware played, much of which is close to where there live since our state and county is so small. Most of what we will be studying in this unit occurred within driving distance of their house or our school.
By the time students reach the 11th grade U.S. History course that I teach, they have spent so little time learning history or social studies. No Child Left Behind, and its successor Every Student Succeeds Act, put such a focus on testing for reading and math that elementary schools basically got rid of science and social studies. What time they did have for it was usually missed because of other things happening in the schools. If teachers needed more time for reading or math lessons, social studies lessons are often pushed to the side. If a speaker comes to school or there is an assembly, social studies is pushed to the side. Through my personal experience with my own children in the Red Clay School District, my older daughter in elementary school had 20 minutes at the end of a few days a week for her first few years of school that they were supposed to use for social studies. Not much work came home that fit under the social studies umbrella. Her 5th grade year gave a little more time with “Wandering Wednesdays” where they spend more of the day looking at science and social studies but one year of K-5 doesn’t suffice when considering 6 years of primary education. When the students get to middle school, everyone is assigned a social studies class in their schedule but my students come in with varying experiences and content knowledge.
Half of my schedule is Civics and Economics for 9th graders. In 10th grade, students take World History, but with a Eurocentric focus. When they reach me in 11th grade U.S. History, they have very rudimentary knowledge of U.S. History, usually knowing some about the start of the nation, that the US was involved in wars, there was a Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King, Jr., but they are often missing information about Delaware’s involvement in that history. As U.S. history is often focused on the accomplishments and moments through the lens of the majority which are white
Americans, students know even less about minority perspectives and experiences. I want to focus the students on the time frame of the Civil Rights Movement and make a connection between what happened in Delaware during that time to Wilmington being called Murdertown, USA today.
I will be teaching this unit at Conrad Schools of Science, which is a magnet school through the Red Clay Consolidated School District. It is focused on bringing students together who are interested in the Science pathways of Biotechnology, Nursing, Veterinary Science, Biomedical, Physical Therapy, and Computer Science. The school serves on average 1100 students of all backgrounds who apply to the school and are chosen through a lottery by meeting minimum requirements in academics, behavior and attendance, and a minimal interest in science. While the school is focused on the sciences, students take a well-rounded schedule with opportunities for many Advanced Placement (AP) and college level courses through partnerships with Delaware Technical Community College and the University of Delaware. More students in our school take AP and College Level Courses in social studies than any other subject area, including science. This unit is intended to be taught in Honors and College Prep level 11th grade U.S. History classes.
The courses that I teach include students of all different racial, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds. A little over 13% of our school is considered low income by the state of Delaware. The three largest racial groups in our school are 57% white, 21% Latino, and 12% Black according to the Delaware Report Card on the Delaware government website. There are students who come to my classroom with 504 plans and 3.39% of our students are listed as having learning disabilities needing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). All students are in the least restrictive environment classrooms, with no self-contained special ed classrooms in our school. While we do not have an official English Language Learners (ELL) program by the time students reach High School, I teach students every year who have transitioned out of ELL services. While not the majority, my class lists also include students who have been identified as performing below the state minimum proficiency requirements so they are pulled for extra services each week in the state Response to Intervention (RTI) program.
Objectives
My goal in this unit is to have students analyze information from primary and secondary sources to trace racism and discrimination in Delaware during the Civil Rights Movement and make connections to the current situation in Wilmington, Delaware. They will also have to make connections to the racism that we have already studied in previous units during the school year to show how the issues they are studying did not magically appear. I think it is extremely important that students not only learn history, but that they learn their local history. Delaware is not unique in the fact that racism was experienced here but it is unique with how events through its history have garnered national attention. The
students will see that this attention was not always good. Most of this local information is not found in any textbook so students will be using the primary and secondary sources to dive deep into local history, versus the broad strokes of the Civil Rights Movement that they have typically seen before they attend my class.
The three questions addressed in my unit are: 1. How did the Civil Rights Movement affect Delaware schools? Students will answer this question by looking at two Delaware court cases that were added into the U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v Board of Education about desegregation. 2. What impact did the Wilmington Riots have on the city of Wilmington? Students will look at pictures, vidoes, first person accounts, and news articles looking back at the National Guard occupation to explain the loss of rights and white flight from Wilmington, Delaware. 3. How are the effects of integration and white flight still being felt in Wilmington today? Students will read articles about the violence in Wilmington and resegregation of Wilmington schools which stem from the Civil Rights Movement.
By the end of this unit students will be able to analyze documents and readings to determine an author’s claim and cite text evidence to back up their choices. Students will also be able to discuss their thoughts with students around them and use reasoning and evidence from the resources that they analyze to back up their discussions. Students will have to use the evidence and discussions from the unit to create a plan for the city of Wilmington of what should be done to move forward as the culminating assessment.
I am lucky enough to teach in a 1:1 school where the students typically come to class prepared with their Chromebooks. This gives me the opportunity to have the students view many more primary and secondary sources rather than just using the textbook, which most of what we are working on for this unit cannot be found in anyway. While there is a time and place for the use of a textbook, using the actual documents from the time helps students feel a better connection to what they are learning. Viewing photos from the time allows them to actually see what others were seeing. All of these things that are employed in the class allow students to understand the zeitgeist of the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, or the feelings of the times. Much of what the students will be looking at for this unit will be online from many different sites like the National Archives, Our Documents, Delaware Online, and the Delaware Public Archives.
Background Knowledge of Delaware History
Delaware’s history as a border state during the Civil War, is important for the students to understand. While Delaware fought with the Union, they kept their enslaved people. The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t apply to Delaware during the Civil War. Delaware held onto their denial of rights for Black people in the United States for decades longer after the Civil War. It wasn’t until 1901 that Delaware formally ratified the 13th, 14th,
and 15th amendments even though they had been ratified by the required 3/4s of state legislatures in 1865, 1868, and 1870.
In 1896, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson. The issue at hand was whether states had the right to offer different services to whites and blacks separately. Homer Plessy purposefully got arrested on a Louisiana white train car when he refused to move to the black car. The Supreme Court supported states rights which brought about the “separate but equal” rule, or federal approval to state sponsored segregation. Delaware followed along with many other states in continuing segregation in all areas. Schools especially kept races separate. This information will be shared with the students during the Reconstruction Unit to understand the background of Delaware.
Classroom Strategies and Activities
Lesson One
This Civil Rights Unit will occur closer to the end of the school year. I want to start the unit by having the students look at two court cases in Delaware that end up being combined with the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court Case, Bulah (and Belton) v. Gebhart. These two cases include the currently active school of Howard High School and the former white and colored schools in Hockessin, Delaware. Howard High School is still used as a school for the New Castle County VoTech district, while also being on the National Historic Registry, and the elementary school buildings are no longer schools but still stand in Hockessin. Students don’t realize that the buildings they have probably seen or are in their backyard have historical significance beyond just being old. The Belton case involved a group of African American parents who wanted their children to attend a local, all white High School in Claymont instead of being bused on a 20 mile round trip to the all Black Howard High School. The Howard school was viewed as subpar compared to the Claymont school in all aspects of facilities, teacher qualifications, student to teacher ratio, curriculum, and extra-curricular opportunities. The Bulah case in Hockessin involved a Black family asking for bus transportation for their elementary school aged daughter on an all white bus so that she did not have to walk on the road and cross over railroad tracks. They were not asking to integrate schools, just have safe transportation for their daughter, but they were still denied by the Delaware Board of Education. One particular Delawarean, Chancellor Collins Seitz, who heard the cases was against the norm in the United States and Delaware when he surprisingly decided to support the students and say that the Board of Education was wrong and “separate but equal” was far from being equal.
Chancellor Seitz was already known in the legal community in Delaware as a young judge who heard a case regarding admissions to the University of Delaware by Black students in undergraduate programs, which had not been allowed before in Delaware. He had already ruled in favor of the Black students who wanted to attend the University of
Delaware. A few years later, he heard the Belton and Bulah cases and found in favor of integration again. This was immediately appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court who also found in favor of the students. Chancellor Seitz’s work in the courts in Delaware eventually lead to his appointment as a judge in the U.S. Federal Courts.
Students will start by reading through two resources on information from the Brown Foundation and National Parks Service websites to explain the cases and issues. Then they will look at the majority opinion of the Supreme Court to compare the results of that case and what happened after the decision was made. The students will fill out a worksheet that I will create that asks them to explain the problems that lead to the Bulah v Gebhart and Belton v Gebhart cases. This way they can see that racial discrimination issues were found from Elementary School through High School and that it was not just classroom inequalities that families were facing but also issues in transportation. Students will then compare the decisions of Chancellor Seitz in each case, showing that he found in favor of the Black families in both cases, which went against the precedent created in the Plessy case.
After we discuss what the students found in the two cases, they will be directed to the Brown v Board of Education information from the Our Documents government website to answer questions about the U.S. Supreme Court case. The Delaware Board of Education had appealed the Delaware Supreme Court decision and the Delaware cases were added into the Brown vs Board of Education to be heard by the Supreme Court. Students will need to read the summary to explain what principle was overruled by the Supreme Court decision, which was the “separate but equal” principle created by the Plessy v Ferguson case. The second question will be why there was a second Brown v Board case in 1955. There was a need for a second case to deal with the resistance of states to desegregate. It gave more direction to states to start desegregating with “all deliberate speed,” which leads to more issues in the United States later. The students will have to read the decision of the Supreme Court case to explain the decision of the case and then compare the Brown decision to the Delaware cases, writing trends that they saw in the decisions.
I want students to focus on the Majority opinion of the US Supreme Court Case Brown v Board of Education. The Court focused on the fact that education was the most important function of government to raise good citizens and that education is a basic need to allow students to be successful in life. It was stated that:
“We come then to the question presented: does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.”(1)
The last sentence finally strikes a blow to segregation but it was far from over.
In 2017, the Delaware State’s chief justice Leo Strine, Jr. spoke at the University of Delaware to discuss the resegregation of Delaware public schools in modern times. He commented on the current state of Delaware schools. The article that described his speech in the University of Delaware newspaper UDaily :
“He cited statistics showing racial and economic imbalances among the student bodies of various schools. Especially in elementary schools in Wilmington and its suburbs, the data showed, African American children and those from lower-income families and neighborhoods are now again greatly overrepresented in some schools and underrepresented in others…”(2)
Chief Justice Strine focused on schools in Delaware that have higher numbers of Black students, like Wilmington, Delaware elementary schools, have less experienced teachers, less money for instruction, and little to no money for extracurricular activities. This speech was made in 2017 and the arguments are still the same that were brought to the Delaware Court of Chancery in the 1950s. He said much of these issues came when the federal oversight went away.
The issue in Delaware still seems to be the same. One attempt to deal with de facto segregation in Delaware that starting in the late 1970s was mandatory busing of students around northern Delaware to try and get more racial mixing of students. I have personal stories as an elementary school student to share with my students about the busing system. I was a white student living in Hockessin that was bussed 45 minutes into center city Wilmington to attend Warner Elementary School. There were students from center city Wilmington that were bused into the Hockessin area to attend the school that was much closer to my home. This federally mandated program was ended in 1995 after 17 years of attempting to desegregate failing and the story from UDaily and Chief Justice Strine seem to show that the program didn’t change anything.
At the same time that mandatory bussing was ending, the decision was made to close down the one high school in the city of Wilmington. Low student enrollment and continued white flight from the city of Wilmington leading to increased de facto segregation are two big reasons behind this closure. To this day, there is no neighborhood high school for students to attend in the city of Wilmington. There are surrounding schools in three different districts that students are divided between as their official placement school or families and students can try to use the school choice system. This school choice system allows students to place an application to go to any public school that has available seats or any of the many charter and magnet schools offered by surrounding districts instead of attending their assigned school. There are arguments that this charter and magnet system have created a way to segregate the schools more since families have to be actively involved in filling out the choice application, attending interviews, and then transporting students to the school since there are not always bus
stops near the child’s home like there would be for their assigned school. This makes it very difficult for all students to try and use this opportunity. I will have students talk with people sitting near them to discuss the impact of the choice system in Delaware. Students will also be able to use the Delaware Report Card website to view statistical data to see the racial profiles of each school and compare assigned public schools to the charter and magnet schools.
Lesson Two
The next lesson that I will cover with the students is about the Wilmington Riots of 1968 and have them explain their understanding of the impact on the city. After Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 there was a violent backlash by residents of the city which led to a 9-month occupation of the city by the National Guard, the longest occupation of a United States city since the Civil War. People in Wilmington, Delaware had to deal with seeing armed military personnel in the city constantly, curfews, and violence between the military personnel and citizens. An article from the Philadelphia Inquirer talks about the violence that erupted in Wilmington following King’s assassination with more than 15 people being arrested, more than 13 fires around the city, and 19 businesses bring looted. It goes on to say,
“The next morning, in an attempt to “restore order,” Gov. Charles Terry activated the entire 3,800-man Army and Air National Guard for deployment throughout the state, with many assigned to downtown Wilmington.
The guardsmen would remain in the city until Jan. 21, 1969 – the longest tenure of any such guard detail nationwide – until being removed hours after newly elected Gov. Russell Peterson took the oath of office.”(3)
Students will analyze this article and another from the Delaware News Journal looking back at the Wilmington Riots with quotes from people who lived through the 9-month long occupation. I know that the article came from the News Journal but I cannot find a copy online or date information of when it was written to share. If people cannot find another article to substitute, they can just have the students just read and analyze the Philadelphia Inquirer article. Students will compare these two readings to understand the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and riots had on the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Students will have to compare the two claims that the authors make in their articles about the riots and cite text evidence from the articles to back up their claims. They will them be asked to compare the trends of racism that we have already studied to these two new articles.
The Delaware Art Museum and Delaware Historical Society have a website entitled “Wilmington 1968” which includes a timeline of the occupation, photos, and quotes from people who were living in Wilmington at the time. Students will be given time to peruse
the website and list 5 new things that they have learned about the Wilmington Riots and occupation. They will then use this information and the two previous articles to explain the impact they think the riots and occupation had on the city and surrounding areas, making sure to give evidence to back up their claim.
We will take time to discuss the trends of racism in Delaware from previous units to this one so students can understand that even 100 years after the Civil War, not much had changed for African Americans in northern Delaware. I will have students participate in a “Take a Stand” activity where I will have a spectrum on the wall asking students how much has Wilmington changed. The two ends of the spectrum on the wall of “Things have changed in Wilmington” and “Things have not changed in Wilmington”. Students will have to physically stand along the spectrum to show what they think, making sure that they have reasons and evidence to back up their position. Students will have to talk to one person standing near them with their reasons and then I will choose one student from each extreme and one near the middle to explain their reasons. I will ask if anyone wants to change their position with this new information and choose new people to explain why they changed or why they stayed in their same spot to make sure that students are listening and participating.
The Philadelphia Inquirer article also talks about the change in demographics of Wilmington after the riots leading to the same issues being fought today. Students will need this information to connect to the final lesson about modern Wilmington being viewed as one of the most dangerous cities per capita in the United States. There is evidence that the article brings up about how in 2017, young people were more likely to be shot in Wilmington than any other city in America.
“Many of the issues that were protested in 1968 are still bubbling today — fair and just housing, equal education, police brutality, jobs, and opportunities for class mobility. For many, the occupation was a catalyst to engage in social activism.”(4)
Lesson Three
The last lesson that I want to tackle with the students is to look at the long term effects on Wilmington with race issues. In 2014, Newsweek published an article entitled “Murder Town USA (aka Wilmington, Delaware)”. The article was a highly negative view of the city and drew immediate backlash by the people of Delaware. The introduction of the city by the author Abigail Jones starts with several shootings that occurred right after she arrived Wilmington and how the city ranks third in violence compared to 450 cities of similar sizes.
“This is not unusual for a place that's routinely called one of the most dangerous small cities in America. This year, there have been 27 homicides in Wilmington,
tying its record 27 murders in 2010, and 135 people have been shot. Twenty-two of them died.”(5)
Students will read through the article to understand the background of how the city of Wilmington is viewed today from one perspective. The students will then read an article from the DC Bureau of McClatchy news to read about the strides that Wilmington is trying to make to deal with the violence there. The article includes videos of people living in Wilmington now, trying to make a difference in dealing with the violence, which stems from poverty and racism which the students have already read about. The article talks about the different approach that Wilmington has taken in attacking the gun violence:
“Following a spike in shootings in 2013, Wilmington’s City Council and the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services sought help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They convinced the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention to help study the problem.”(6)
Students will compare the viewpoints of the two different articles and compare what they are saying and why they think the articles in a similar manner to how they compared the Wilmington Riots articles. Students for both articles must write what the authors’ claims are and what evidence there is to back up their choice of claim. Then students will take the next step to think about why these articles were written. The Murdertown, USA article has a much different purpose than the newer article about how Wilmington is fighting back against gun violence. Students will then compare the purposes and information from the two articles. Students will write their notes on their papers with the questions and then use shoulder partners to discuss what they read and how the articles are different. The biggest things that they should take away is that the Newsweek article is more about selling magazines and getting an emotional response from readers. The McClatchy DC article is from a much smaller news source that also wants to make money but not using the same style of sensationalism that Newsweek did.
Assessment
At the end of the unit, students must show show their understanding of trends over time in Delaware with a paper where I ask them to explain their ideas on what they think should happen next for the city of Wilmington and Delaware. I want them to create a plan that they think should be put into place to move forward and to make Wilmington and Delaware a more safe, equal, and equitable state. This culminating assignment will be for the students to put everything together that they have seen so far in Delaware and Wilmington’s history and get their ideas for what should happen next. They must start by writing out what attempts have been made already that we learned about and how these attempts have succeeded and failed. I’m expecting the students to talk about school integration, busing, the use of military force, and the police force. There are successes and failures that can be brought up in all of these programs.
There is an article on the website Delaware Black that gives statistics about Wilmington’s population with the population now being made up of 56.6% Black and 12.2% Latino residents. It discusses the white flight that has been seen in the city, with white residents falling from 45.1% in 1980 to 27.6% in 2016.
“As the Black population grew in Wilmington, wealthier White residents began moving into the surrounding counties and even into surrounding states.”(7)
The article goes on to discuss the median level of income in Wilmington being a little more than $15,000 less than the national average at about $40,00 and how it is even lower for Black and Latino families at aout $30,000 and $32,000 compared to the White families at $60,000 in Delaware. Poverty rates in Delaware increased more now than what we saw with the Great Recession.
Students will work on their plan individually but they will be given time to look at two other plans written by students in the class and offer suggestions to the other students. I will give the papers out with no names so that the students will not know whose work they are reading to try to make sure students are being honest and unbiased. The students will get their work back with comments and suggestions to make their plans stronger but will be told that they do not have to incorporate everything that is suggested. One of the skills that the College Board thinks that students need to be successful after High School is that they understand grammatically correct writing. Having students review other’s work will allow them to practice this and improve their own writing. Students will then have time to review the suggestions and complete a final draft of their work.
Once students are done with their plans, I will break students into three groups where everyone will present their plan in their smaller group. I need to break up the class into smaller groups to make sure everyone is able to present their plan in one class period because of the sizes of my classes. Smaller group sizes also help keep students engaged because they are not sitting and listening to the entire class. If class sizes are smaller or I decided I want students to present in front of everyone in the class, I can always make that decision at a later date. While presentations are occuring, students who are in the audience must evaluate the plan on two criteria: 1. How much does this student’s plan show the learning from successes and failures of the past in Delaware? 2. How likely do you think it is that the plan could actually be implemented? Once everyone in the small group has presented, the groups will choose which one plan they think has the best chance of being successful. Those three people will present their plans to the group so that everyone can see what the class thinks are the best ideas of their peers.
Hopefully by the end of the unit, students will be able to see that history is not easy. Trying to understand what happened in the past and how it impacts what it happening today is not something that is done in three lessons and never touched on again. Race and
the position that race puts people in is more evident in Delaware than many other states. Personally, it is so difficult to understand why things are as bad as they are today with Delaware being such a small state. These activities that the students will work through during this unit will give them the historical perspective they need to determine what steps can and should be taken next.
I am not expecting any student to come up with the magic tonic to fix the problems of racism that have been around for centuries. I hope analyzing the history of a problem and making connections over time will allow them to think deeper, rather than see things as a “Black vs White” issue. As most of the sources students have read say, education is the best way to combat major issues. I hope that the injustices students read in this unit will have an impact on them and their thinking. Each of the proposals that they hear from their classmates will be another way to combat these issues and hopefully have ripple effects over time. Maya Angelou has a famous quote saying you do something until you know better, then do better. I hope that this unit will allow the students to understand how we have arrived at our current situation in the United States and create a plan to do better after they have more education and know better.
Student Source List for All Assignments in the Unit
“Belton (bulah) V. Gebhart”. Accessed April 10, 2019.
https://www.nps.gov/brvb/learn/historyculture/delaware.htm Explanation of the Delaware school segregation cases.
“Brown Case - Belton V. Gebhart” Accessed April 10, 2019.
https://brownvboard.org/content/brown-case-belton-v-gebhart Explanation of the Delaware school segregation cases.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=87 Explanation of the Supreme Court Case and a transcript of the court decision.
“Delaware Report Card: Educational Data for Delaware Citizens”. Accessed December 15, 2019. https://reportcard.doe.k12.de.us/ Students can search schools and get more information under “Enrollment” to find statistical data on schools.
Jones, Abigail. “Murder Town USA (aka Wilmington, Delaware)”. December 19, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2019. https://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/wilmington-delaware-murder-crime-290232.html Newsweek article about modern day violence in Wilmington.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/september/leo-strine-delivers-soles-lecture/ UDaily news article about the Delaware Chief Justice’s presentation on resegregation in Delaware.
“Wilmington, Delaware: Small City with Big City Problems”. Delawareblack.com
Delawareblack- NBG Network- WA Public Relations Company. March, 27, 2019. Accessed November 15, 2019. https://www.delawareblack.com/wilmington-delaware-small-city-with-big-city-problems/ Modern article about the violence in Wilmington and social statistics.
Teacher Source List
“Belton (bulah) V. Gebhart”. Accessed April 10, 2019.
https://www.nps.gov/brvb/learn/historyculture/delaware.htm Explanation of the Delaware school segregation cases.
“Blacks in Delaware since the Wilmington Riots of 1968: A conversation”. April 26, 2017. Accessed November 27, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CD5sfDFZTc
Video of a panel discussion about the issues faced by Black residents of Delaware since the Wilmington Riots of 1968 through today.
“Brown Case - Belton V. Gebhart” Accessed April 10, 2019.
https://brownvboard.org/content/brown-case-belton-v-gebhart Explanation of the Delaware school segregation cases.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=87 Explanation of the Supreme Court Case and a transcript of the court decision.
“Case for Equality: Reading, Writing, and Resistance” U.S. National Park Service. Accessed November 27, 2019. https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm%3Fid%3DC7D544CE-F649-1AC6-E2BB89771C0C5611 A video from the National Parks Service about the Brown v Board case and desegregation of schools.
“Collins Jacques Seitz.” Accessed December 10, 2019. http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4584&context=penn_law_review Two page explanation about Chancellor Seitz who made the desegregation decision in Belton v Gebhart and Bulah v Gebhart.
Daugherity, Brian and Charles Bolton. With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown V. Board Of Education- University Of Arkansas Press - 2008. Pgs 155-175 specifically discusses desegregation in Delaware.
“Delaware Report Card: Educational Data for Delaware Citizens”. Accessed December 15, 2019. https://reportcard.doe.k12.de.us/ Teachers can direct students to search for different schools and get more information under “Enrollment” to find statistical data on schools.
Gadsden, Brett. Between North and South: Delaware, Desegregation, and the Myth Of American Sectionalism - University Of Pennsylvania Press - 2013. The whole book has information about the history of racism in Delaware.
Jones, Abigail. “Murder Town USA (aka Wilmington, Delaware)”. December 19, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2019. https://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/wilmington-delaware-murder-crime-290232.html Newsweek article about modern day violence in Wilmington.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/september/leo-strine-delivers-soles-lecture/ UDaily news article about the Delaware Chief Justice’s presentation on resegregation in Delaware.
“Wilmington, Delaware: Small City with Big City Problems”. Delawareblack.com
Delawareblack- NBG Network- WA Public Relations Company. March, 27, 2019. Accessed November 15, 2019. https://www.delawareblack.com/wilmington-delaware-small-city-with-big-city-problems/ Modern article about the violence in Wilmington and social statistics.
“Wilmington Resident: Anger Fueled 1968 Race Riots” Accessed November 27, 2019.
https://www.delawareonline.com/videos/embed/94596334? Video explanation of anger being a cause of the 1968 Wilmington Riots.
Wolters, Raymond. The Burden Of Brown: Thirty Years Of School Desegregation
- University Of Tennessee Press - 1992. Pgs 175-252 cover the attempt of using busing to help with de facto segregation in Delaware.
Appendix
The Delaware State Social Studies Standards I want to focus on in the Unit include:
According to Delaware State Social Studies History Standard Four, students in grades 9-12 should “develop historical knowledge of major events and phenomena in World, United States, and Delaware history [Content]”. This standard will be covered with the information that is learned in the unit.
The focus beyond content will be History Standard One 9-12a: “Students will analyze historical materials to trace the development of an idea or trend across space or over a prolonged period of time in order to explain patterns of historical continuity and change.” The Essential Questions from the state of Delaware include:
Students will be looking at this standard as they explain how things changed from 1954 to the Civil Rights Movement and Riots in Wilmington to what is happening in Delaware today. Students will be asked to write and discuss trends that they see about how Delaware has changed and stayed the same in regards to racism.
The Common Core Social Studies Standards that will be included in the unit are:
Students will complete this standard through their writing throughout the unit. They will be asked to cite text evidence to back up their writing and figure out an author’s claim, using evidence from the text to back up their choice.
Notes
(1) “Brown V. Board Of Education (1954)” Accessed April 10, 2019.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=87
(2) Manser, Ann. “Resegregation in Delaware schools.” September 26, 2017. Accessed May 1, 2019.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/september/leo-strine-delivers-soles-lecture/
(3) Johnson, TyLisa. “Etched in Memory: The National Guard occupied Wilmington for 9 months in 1968. The city was never the same.” December 7, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/wilmington-del-riots-occupation-martin-luther-king-jr-national-guard-20181207.html
(4) Johnson, TyLisa. “Etched in Memory: The National Guard occupied Wilmington for 9 months in 1968. The city was never the same.” December 7, 2018. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/wilmington-del-riots-occupation-martin-luther-king-jr-national-guard-20181207.html
(5) Jones, Abigail. “Murder Town USA (aka Wilmington, Delaware)”. December 19, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2019. https://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/wilmington-delaware-murder-crime-290232.html
(6) Hall, Kevin. “The 'most dangerous' place to be a teen: This city fights back against gun violence”. February 12, 2019. Accessed May 5, 2019. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article226090070.html
(7) “Wilmington, Delaware: Small City with Big City Problems”. Delawareblack.com
Delawareblack- NBG Network- WA Public Relations Company. March, 27, 2019. Accessed November 15, 2019. https://www.delawareblack.com/wilmington-delaware-small-city-with-big-city-problems/