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  • William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project2

Start Over Date 2006 Date 1986 Collection William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project

1. Interview with Collins J. Seitz (2:14:22)

Date:
2006
Summary:
Part one. Judge Collins Seitz recalls his childhood and schooling, the University of Delaware, the University of Virginia law school, and the DuPont scholarship. Part two. Mr. Seitz reports that discrimination was never discussed in law school, and separate but equal was never discussed while he was a young lawyer in Wilmington. Part three. Seitz talks about being appointed Vice Chancellor in Delaware's Court of Chancery. Important decisions he wrote in the corporate arena include the Bata Shoe case, Ringling Brothers case, and Campbell v. Loew’s. The first civil rights case he tried as judge was Parker v. University of Delaware in 1950. The case was based on the idea that separateness was inherently unequal. Part four. The per se theory, that segregation was inherently unequal, was a part of the Parker case, but Judge Seitz did not address it directly, so he decided the case on the question of whether or not school facilities were equal. Fundamental in his decision was the disparity in capital assets between the "white" University of Delaware and the "black" university known as Delaware State College, as well as terrible differences in curriculum and libraries. Seitz also comments on the Prince Edward County case in Virginia and his famous speech at a boys school in Wilmington. Part five. Seitz discusses his part in one of the five Brown v. Board of Education cases, Gebhart v. Belton, and his desire to declare separate but equal as unconstitutional in his written opinion, but he decided it was the place of the US Supreme Court to do so. He talks about the disparity between African American and white schools in Delaware, Louis Redding, and the granting of immediate relief. Part six. Seitz reviews Baker v. Carr and the Girard College case. Part seven. Different camera angles show Judge Higginbotham asking questions.

2. Interview with Louis L. Redding (1:47:06)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Higginbotham, A. Leon (Aloyisus Leon), 1928-1998
Summary:
Part one. Civil rights attorney Louis Redding recalls his family, childhood, and going to Brown University. Part two. Mr. Redding tells his family’s history at Brown. After Harvard Law School, he returned to still segregated Delaware to practice law. Immediately, he tried to abolish separation based on race in courtrooms. He discussed the Parker case, its background, African American admission to University of Delaware, and Judge Collins Seitz. Part three. Redding says that he would not have filed the Parker case if he didn't know that Judge Collins Seitz would get the case. In Gebhart v. Belton, the public school case, Redding used testimony from psychology and sociology experts about how separate but equal was inherently detrimental to African American children. He also comments on Jack Greenberg, Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, and the day the Brown v. Board of Education decision was announced. Part four. The day the Brown decision became public, Redding heard the news on the radio while driving and crashed into the car in front of him. Mr. Redding discusses the Burton case, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, William Hastie, William Robert Ming. He also tells how John W. Davis, the lawyer defending separate but equal, wept during arguments in front of the Supreme Court in the Brown case. Part five. Charles Hamilton Houston. Advice to young lawyers. At 9:00 until end, still photos.