Black Histories at University of Delaware

Delaware College and Supporters of Unfreedom(1840)

LOCATION: 202 Sypherd Drive, Rathmell Wilson's former house

In the nineteenth century, the Delaware College Board of Trustees were important leaders not only at Delaware College but also in the Newark community. Before the passage of the 13th Amendment, many members of the Board of Trustees actively enslaved people, actively promoted the institution of slavery - or both. Recent and ongoing student research by Margaret Hughes supported by UDARI, has revealed that of the 82 men who served as trustees between 1837 and 1856, 41% were enslavers and 25% held apprenticeship indentures and therefore benefited from unfree labor. Findings also include that 52% of trustees employed free people of color in their households. 

One such trustee was Rathmell Wilson, who was the president of the Board of Trustees, and a significant donor to Delaware College before, during, and after the Civil War. Wilson built a mansion, Oaklands, just west of Main Street, where he enslaved people. Ironically, our best evidence for Wilson’s role as enslaver comes from manumission documents. Although the details of how and when Wilson acquired the people he enslaved is unclear, records of manumission provide some information. In 1850, Wilson filed manumission deeds in New Castle County freeing five members of the Chase family: Ann Chase, 24, and her daughter, Laura, then six months old, as well as three boys, Sewell, 16, Henry, 8, and Charles, 4, whose relationship to Ann is unclear. Keeping with common practice in Delaware, Wilson specified in his manumissions that none of the Chases were freed immediately. Ann Chase and her six month old daughter were to be freed nine months later, on Ann’s twenty-fifth birthday. The Chase boys faced longer sentences as “term slaves”: four-year-old Charles and eight-year-old Henry would be free on their twenty-third birthdays – nineteen and fifteen years later – and Sewell Chase on his twenty-fourth birthday, nine-years later These stipulations on manumissions were common in  Delaware. While the Chase family was counted as “free” on the census, Sewell, Henry, and Charles were still bound to labor through the prime years of their youth, effectively stealing their childhoods. These manumission documents illuminate how Wilson actively exploited Black people, while leading the Board of Trustees at Delaware College. 

Sources Consulted: 

Margaret W. Hughes, “Slavery, Race, and Systemic Inequality at Delaware College, 1850-1859,” Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD (blog), July 7, 2022,   ( https://sites.udel.edu/udari-legacies/research/ ) 

Margaret W. Hughes, Survey, “Delaware College Trustees, 1837-1856,” 82 trustees surveyed. 

Collin Willard, “Enslavement, Exploitation, and Upholding Unfreedom: What are Rathmell Wilson’s connections to slavery and oppression in Antebellum Delaware,”Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD (blog), July 7, 2022, ( https://sites.udel.edu/udari-legacies/2022/06/23/enslavement-exploitation-and-upholding-unfreedom/ )  

Ruth Decosse, “To Be Young, Black, and Manumitted: The Case of the Chase Family in Delaware,” Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD (blog), July 7, 2022,  (https://sites.udel.edu/udari-legacies/2022/06/23/to-be-young-black-and-manumitted-the-case-of-the-chase-family-in-delaware/ ) 

Suzanne Herel, “Oaklands Colonial Built From Same Brick that Made Monticello,” Special to the News Journal, Delaware Online, Nov. 14, 2017 ( https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2017/11/14/oaklands-colonial-built-brick-monticello/850523001/ )

Image Credit:

Unknown artist, Rathmell Wilson, 19th century. Oil on canvas. University of Delaware Library, Museums, and Press. © University of Delaware Museums. 

Self-Emancipated Man Arrives on Campus(1853)

Location: Old College

In the dead of winter 1853, a self-emancipated Black person on their way to Wilmington arrived on the Delaware College campus. A freedom-seeker, enslaved somewhere in the state of Delaware, he braved the violent and potentially deadly consequences should he be captured. On December 1st, he asked Delaware College students for shelter until the night when he could continue his flight to freedom. These students included Joseph Cleaver who wrote of this event in his diary. Cleaver detailed how the college president at the time, Reverend W.S.F. Graham, refused to grant the freedom-seeker safety. Cleaver recalled the president stating: “the College must not break the law even when the law seems wrong.” In choosing this position, Graham claimed the moral high ground while preaching allegiance to a law that antislavery activists protested vigorously. He ensured that Delaware College’s actions would not run counter to the wishes of the Board of Trustees, the majority of whom profited from unfree labor. 

 While some Delaware College students held pro-slavery sentiments, the students in Cleaver’s dormitory in Old College went against the president’s stated wish and gave this unnamed person shelter. The freedom-seeker left when night fell. Four days later, Cleaver heard from fellow students that a freedom-seeker in Wilmington had been captured, whom they feared was the fugitive they had sheltered. Cleaver was disturbed at the possibility that the self-emancipated person had “been taken back from freedom to live all his life a slave.”

We do not know this freedom-seeker’s name, their age, where they fled from, or if their self-emancipation attempt was ultimately successful. All we know is what came from the diary of a white student. This scant and biased information is unfortunately common when recovering the histories of enslaved persons. While hundreds of self-emancipated people wrote, or helped to write, their own histories, and African-American abolitionist William Still’s Underground Railroad (1872, 1886) offers powerful testimony of many freedom attempts, including in Delaware, often the only way enslaved persons’ stories were recorded was in the words and writings of white people. Perhaps this unidentified person told Cleaver their name. Perhaps this person told Cleaver where they came from. However, Cleaver made the choice not to record these details. The lasting impact of this choice is that historians do not know the name and full story of this person, and likely never will. These are lost to time because while this person attempted to grasp their own freedom, Cleaver had the power to  write their history. 

Sources Consulted: 

Joseph Cleaver, The Diary of a Student at Delaware College, August 1853-November 1854, ed. William Ditto Lewis (Baltimore: J.H. Furst Company, 1951), 18-19.

Margaret W. Hughes, “Slavery, Race, and Systemic Inequality at Delaware College, 1850-1859,”  UDARI Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD, July 7, 2022 ( https://sites.udel.edu/udari-legacies/2022/06/15/pomp-circumstance-and-silence/ ) 

William Still, Underground Rail Road Records (Philadelphia: William Still, 1886),  Hathi Trust, ( https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000241679 ) 

“Profile Old College,” University of Delaware, ( https://www1.udel.edu/markpm/campus/pf-ocl.htm#:~:text=Old%20College%20is%20the%20oldest,of%20funds%20prevented%20its%20construction ) 

Image Credit:

Unknown photographer, Old College and the Delaware College Campus, 1875. Steroview. University of Delaware Archives.

The New London Road Community(1850)

Location: New London Road

The New London Road community was a part of the town of Newark that consisted of primarily African American residents. A close knit and vibrant community, it was enclosed by Ray Street, New London Road, and West Main Street. Black residents had been living on this land since the antebellum period. In the 1840s, Delaware College trustee Rathmell Wilson began selling these plots of land to free Black families. The first land owners were five free Black men: Isaac Bacchus, Nathan Wrench, Joseph Williams, Griffen Saunders, and Charles Brown. As time went on, more Black families moved into the area, which was already home to a thriving African American community. 

A walking tour developed by students and faculty in the UD Art Conservation department together with New London Road Community partners commemorates residents’ lives. You can find the walking tour  here . As residents remembered, for the majority of the twentieth century, the New London Road was self-sufficient. With no help from the City of Newark, community members created their own infrastructure. This included the New London School, the only primary school that Black children could attend in the area until 1954. Religion was a pillar of the community. Residents built three main churches: the Pilgrim Baptist Church, the Mt. Zion U.A.M.E. Church, and St. John African Methodist Church. All still operate today and are the focus of the next stop.

In addition to schools and churches, New London Road residents also made their own recreational and productive spaces. Many residents produced their own food by raising chickens on families’ properties, hunting deer and pheasants, and growing fruits and vegetables in Greens Field. (Greens Field was purchased and developed by the University in the 1970s, and is now Laird Campus). Before the development of this campus however, many residents recalled the tough competition to pick the best blackberries when they were ripe in the summer. In 1946, Bernard, or Bobby, Saunders opened a combination pool room, grocery store, and snack bar to service the community at the intersection of New London Road and W. Cleveland. The Saunders family, who had lived at New London Road since 1870, encompassed three generations of prominent community leaders. In an oral history interview, when asked why he opened the pool hall, Saunders stated: “We did it because we just loved people.” 

The forced dislocation of this community can be attributed to the expansion of the University of Delaware. Starting in 1968, the University encouraged more students to live off campus. As Colin Willard has explored, in 1971, the University of Delaware stated in their development plan that they “intend[ed]... to reduce gradually the percentage of students housed on campus from 60% to 40%”. This created a demand for off-campus housing that had not existed before. Developers eagerly capitalized on students' demand, and identified a target for redevelopment: the New London Road community. The community was close to the main campus, and the actual value of properties in the community was lower than the surrounding white communities. This meant that the developers were able to snatch up property at relatively low prices. The family homes would either turn into student rentals, or be destroyed entirely to create “luxury apartments”. The University acted without respect or remorse for the New London Road community. Although residents resisted, ultimately they lacked the resources or power to stop the institution. Tragically, this story is a familiar one in many communities of color across the United States whose residents have faced gentrification of their neighborhoods and the social and cultural losses that correspond with loss of place. Now the legacy of New London Road’s loving and close knit neighborhood is carried on by the memory of its former residents, and the churches that are the center of the community that remain. 

If you are interested in learning more about the history of this community, in addition to the UD Art Conservation Department walking tour (that can be completed in person or online) here:   https://www.artcons.udel.edu/outreach/diversity-initiatives/new-london-road , there are further resources below.

Sources Consulted:

Anisha Gupta, “The Antebellum Foundations of New London Road’s Free Black Community,” UDARI Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD, July 7, 2022 ( https://sites.udel.edu/udari-legacies/2022/06/15/new-london-roads-free-black-community-in-newark/  )

Colin Willard, “Beyond Its Limits: A Case Study in University Expansion and Gentrification in Newark, DE,” UDARI Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD, July 13, 2021 ( https://sites.udel.edu/antiracism-initiative/2021/07/13/beyond-its-limits-a-case-study-in-university-expansion-and-gentrification-in-newark-de/ ) 

UD Department of Art Conservation, “New London Road Walking Tour,” ( https://www.artcons.udel.edu/outreach/diversity-initiatives/new-london-road ) 

“Mr. Bobby’s Barbershop,” UD Department of Art Conservation, “New London Road Walking Tour,” ( https://www.artcons.udel.edu/outreach/diversity-initiatives/new-london-road ) 

Food Always Brings People Together: Recipes, Poems, and Stories from the New London Road Community, Newark, Delaware (Newark, DE: Center for Material Culture Studies, University of Delaware, 2006.) ( https://udspace.udel.edu/items/feba2e4f-b9ca-4c32-bd37-01e0ae23b42f ) 

Further Resources: 

A Celebration of Community: New London Road and School Hill, 2021,  (https://doi.org/10.2307/artstor.31526754 )

“New London Road/Cleveland Avenue Oral Histories and Research Materials,” (UD Special Collections, 2006 2004),  (https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead/mss0642.xml )

Image Credit:

Map, “The Conditions of Sale for Properties on New London Road and Nottingham Road”, n.d., MS 0271, Series IV, 10001 – 10199, Doc. 10139, George G. Evans Family Papers and Supplement, University of Delaware Special Collections. University of Delaware Library and Press. Newark, Delaware.

Churches of the New London Road Community(1850)

Location: New London Road

As with so many African American communities, churches stood and still stand at the center of the New London Road community, established in 1840, many of whose members were dislocated by the University of Delaware’s expansion. In an oral history, one resident, Alvin Hall, recalled “Everybody just about in the neighborhood went to church. That was a standard with the black families.” In the nineteenth century, religion was a cornerstone of African American communities, a place of Black autonomy, togetherness, and site for political action. The three main churches, the St. John African, Methodist Church, the Mt. Zion U.A.M.E. Church, and the Pilgrim Baptist Church all operate today.

St. John African Methodist church is the oldest church in the community, founded in 1848. Services were first held in a log structure at the spot where the church stands today. The wooden house was replaced with the current church in 1867, which is the current structure on New London Road. The church has several services on Sunday, as well as Bible school. Reverend Steve A. Write currently leads the congregation. 

Mt. Zion U.A.M.E. Church was founded in 1868, and its first services were held in an abandoned blacksmith shop. The community was able to acquire the land the shop rested on, and eventually dismantled the shop and constructed the original Mt. Zion building. The entire community helped with the construction. As time went on, this structure needed to be rebuilt. In 1973, the church settled with the state of Delaware in order for the state to widen the road. With these funds the congregation began to move to a piece of land across the street. This move, starting in 1979, was long and arduous, but finally the new building opened its doors in 1981. This new building is where Mt. Zion stands today. The church currently offers several services on Sundays, as well as several Bible studies and chorus groups. 

Reverend Ernest Twyman, his wife Elizabeth Twyman, Deacon John Giles, his wife Louise Giles, as well as other community members, founded Pilgrim Baptist Church in 1913. From 1913 to 1994, Pilgrim Baptist occupied the building on 49 New London Road, which was previously a Nickelodeon. In 1994, the congregation moved to the structure on Barksdale Road, where it is today. Community members remember the church fondly. In an oral history interview, Clarence “Pepper” Wigman recalled that Pilgrim Baptist had the best choir singers in the community. Today, Pilgrim Baptist offers services on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. It has additional programs like Sunday School and Bible Study. 

Each of these churches have a long history in the New London Road community, and served as gathering points and shelters. They hosted socials, Bible studies, and chorus groups that brought together the entire community. All three churches are active today, and all are well attended. Although the University of Delaware may have caused a significant amount of irreparable damage to the community, the churches of New London Road and their congregations carry on. 

Sources Consulted:

UD Department of Art Conservation, “New London Road Walking Tour,” ( https://www.artcons.udel.edu/outreach/diversity-initiatives/new-london-road ) 

“Pilgrim Baptist,” UD Department of Art Conservation, “New London Road Walking Tour,” ( https://www.artcons.udel.edu/outreach/diversity-initiatives/new-london-road ) 

Pilgrim Baptist Church, Newark, DE,  https://www.pilgrimbaptistdel.com  

Mt. Zion U.A.M.E. Church, Newark, DE,  https://www.mtzionuame.org  

St. John AM Church Inc, Newark, DE  https://stjohnamchurchincnewarkde.org  

Anisha Gupta, “The Antebellum Foundations of New London Road’s Free Black Community,” UDARI Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD, July 7, 2022 ( https://sites.udel.edu/udari-legacies/2022/06/15/new-london-roads-free-black-community-in-newark/  )

Colin Willard, “Beyond Its Limits: A Case Study in University Expansion and Gentrification in Newark, DE,” UDARI Legacies of Enslavement and Dispossession at UD, July 13, 2021 ( https://sites.udel.edu/antiracism-initiative/2021/07/13/beyond-its-limits-a-case-study-in-university-expansion-and-gentrification-in-newark-de/ ) 

Peter T. Dalleo, “The Growth of Delaware’s Antebellum Free African American Community,” ( https://www1.udel.edu/BlackHistory/antebellum.html ) 

Further Resources: 

Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The ‘Invisible Institution’ in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford Press, 2004). 

Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017). 

Jessica Millward, Finding Charity’s Folk: Enslaved and Free Black Women in Maryland (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015).  

Image Credit: 

Mt. Zion U.A.M.E. Church, ( https://www.mtzionuame.org/ ) 

University of Delaware as a Land Grant University(1862)

Location: Townsend Hall

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act into law granting “public land” to universities all over the country, especially universities focused on agricultural and mechanical education. This land consisted of 11 million acres expropriated from 250 Indigenous tribes, bands, and communities. Some of this land was stolen through violence-backed treaties, others through outright seizures. When Delaware College was named a land grant university in 1867, they received a bulk of land scrip (land warrants) from the state of Delaware, which was eventually cashed for about 90,000 acres of land. As the area around Delaware College (which would become the University of Delaware) was already colonized, the land granted from the federal government was primarily in western states. Delaware College then sold these land scrips and used the profits to fund the institution. From 1869 to 1872 Delaware College sold all of its land grants to Gleason F. Lewis. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Lewis monopolized the market of these land grants, buying all the scrips of 11 other land grant universities. He sold the land he acquired to land speculators for development. In total, Delaware College acquired $83,000 from land grants. Adjusted for inflation, that is over $1.4 million dollars. The university invested this money in state bonds, and this capital continues to gain value every year. In 1859, Delaware College closed its doors due to lack of funding. With their profit from land grant sales, Delaware College was able to reopen in 1870. If not for its designation as a land-grant university, Delaware College would have likely remained closed. The University of Delaware as we know it today exists in large part because of the dispossession of Native lands. 

The University of Delaware Anti-Racism Initiative’s committee on American Indian and Indigenous Relations continues research into the University's history as a land-grant university, as well as reparative action including the Living Land Acknowledgement and Institutional Action Steps which were developed in consultation with tribal leadership of the Delaware watersheds including: the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, the Nanticoke Indian Tribe, and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in 2021. 

You can read more about that here:  https://sites.udel.edu/antiracism-initiative/committees/american-indian-and-indigenous-relations/living-land-acknowledgement/#:~:text=The%20Living%20Land%20Acknowledgement%20recognizes,responsibility%20to%20redress%20centuries%20of   

Sources Consulted: 

UDARI American Indian and Indigenous Relations Committee, “Understanding the University of Delaware As a Land Grant University” October 14, 2022. ( https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hbm3ejC8piZDJmhc0POU0UhziQNUlEEF/view ); “UD, Land, Money, and American Indians: An Accounting of Land Grant Universities” November 2, 2022

( https://capture.udel.edu/media/UD%2C+Land%2C+Money%2C+and+American+Indians++An+Accounting+of+Land+Grant+Universities/1_ktmix6vh ) 

Amy Wolf, “Acknowledging History,” UDaily, February 9, 2023. ( https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/february/land-grant-university-morrill-act-american-indians/ ) 

Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone, “Land-grab Universities,” High Country News, March 30, 2020 ( https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities ) 

Mack, E. A., & Stolarick, K. (2014). The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Land-Grant Universities and Regional Prosperity. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 32(3), 384–404.  https://doi.org/10.1068/c11164r 

Image Credit:

Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone, “Land-grab Universities,” High Country News, March 30, 2020 ( https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities ) 

Elbert C. Wisner: First Black Student at the University of Delaware(1949)

LOCATION: Evans Hall on the Green

In September 1949, Elbert C. Wisner transferred to the University of Delaware from the University of Colorado, and entered the School of Engineering to become the first Black student known to attend the University of Delaware since Isiah George DeGrasse who had graduated from Newark College in 1836. By the twentieth century UD was a fully segregated school, barring any prospective Black students from attending. Black Delawarians seeking college education attended Delaware State College, a historically Black college (HBCU) in Dover, Delaware, established in 1891. 

However, Delaware State College did not offer an Electrical Engineering degree at the time, which was the degree Wisner sought. In the 1948 case of Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the Supreme Court ruled that in segregated states if white colleges offered coursework and degrees that were not offered in Black colleges, then Black students must be permitted to apply to and enroll in those programs at the segregated white institutions. This case acted as precedent for Wisner to apply and be admitted to the Electrical Engineering program at the University of Delaware. UD had denied previous attempts by Black applicants such as Ira S. Edwards (1939).

As an electrical engineering major, Wisner was the only Black undergraduate student on campus during his first year at the university.  He roomed with a family in the New London Road community because the University refused to accommodate him in the dormitories. When Wisner graduated in 1952, he became the first African American student to graduate from the University of Delaware.

Information and photo sourced from  University of Delaware Archives  and from the  History of Electrical and Computer Engineering 

Sources Consulted:

University of Delaware Messenger, “An American Story”

 https://www1.udel.edu/udmessenger/vol26no1/stories/features-celebrating-275-american-story.html  

UDaily Archive, “In Memoriam: Elbert C. Wisner”  https://www1.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/oct/wisner112904.html 

The Monumental Efforts of Louis Redding in Parker v. University of Delaware (1950)

LOCATION: Louis Redding Residence Hall

The University of Delaware remained officially racially segregated until 1950, when Louis Redding, the first African American lawyer admitted to the Delaware bar, represented ten Black students who had been denied admission to the University due to their race: Brooks Parker, James Scott, Lillian Coleman, Helen Handy, Homer Minus, Jane Robinson, Irving Williams, Roy Holland, Jr., Thomas Paul, Daniel Moody. At the time, UD argued that if Black students sought a degree that was offered at Delaware State College, now Delaware State University, then the University of Delaware could legally deny students admission based on their race. In this case, Redding argued that by denying admission to these students, the University had acted unconstitutionally, violating the “separate but equal” clause of Plessy v. Ferguson. At the time of the lawsuit, the students were attending Delaware State College, a historically Black institution. 

Judge Collins Seitz of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Judge Seitz declared that the quality of education at Delaware State College was “clearly unequal” and that, as a state institution, the University of Delaware was constitutionally required to admit Black students. Due to Redding's work, which led to the University of Delaware becoming the first desegregated state-funded undergraduate institution, the University of Delaware named Louis Redding residence hall after Louis Redding in 2013.

Sources Consulted:

University of Delaware Library Exhibition, “Parker v. University of Delaware: a Landmark Desegregation Case”  https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/parker/ 

Image Caption: 

"Photograph of Louis L. Redding."

 https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/parker/exhibition-item/photograph-of-louis-l-redding/ 

Desegregation at UD: A Hard Won Victory(1950)

LOCATION: Morris Library

The desegregation of the University of Delaware is a direct result of the efforts of lawyer Louis Redding and the 10 student plaintiffs,  Brooks Parker, James Scott, Lillian Coleman, Helen Handy, Homer Minus, Jane Robinson, Irving Williams, Roy Holland, Jr., Thomas Paul, and Daniel Moody in the Parker v. UD suit in August of 1950. 

Redding found himself directly opposed to Hugh M. Morris, the Chair of the Board of Trustees in 1950 who sought to keep the University from desegregating. Correspondence between Morris and Redding demonstrates Morris’s reluctance to heed Redding’s calls to desegregate. 

The case went to court, without Morris’s support, and was heard by the Delaware Court of Chancery with Judge Collins Jacques Seitz presiding. Seitz ruled in the students’ favor, and ordered UD to desegregate. Although the University complied, after a brief period of time they considered an appeal, as historian Brett Gadsden has detailed in Between North and South: Delaware, Desegregation, and the Myth of American Sectionalism.

Hugh M. Morris, after whom Morris Library is named, actively fought against desegregating UD. One cannot help but wonder if having one of the most prominent buildings on campus named after a defender of segregation is representative of UD’s current values of inclusion and equity. Perhaps a better reflection of the current University would be a building named after the brave 10 student plaintiffs who put their safety on the line to open the door for generations of students of color to attend UD.  

Sources Consulted: 

Owens, Caleb. “The University Says that Hugh M. Morris Fought for Campus Desegregation-History Says Otherwise” The University of Delaware Review, November 13,2018 https://udreview.com/the-university-says-that-hugh-m-morris-fought-for-campus-desegregation-history-says-otherwise/

Image Credit:

Owens, Caleb. “The University Says that Hugh M. Morris Fought for Campus Desegregation-History Says Otherwise” The University of Delaware Review, November 13,2018 https://udreview.com/the-university-says-that-hugh-m-morris-fought-for-campus-desegregation-history-says-otherwise/

Cora Berry-Saunders, Katheryn Young-Hazeur and Black Women Trailblazers at UD(1951)

LOCATION: New Castle Residence Hall

For most of its history, the University of Delaware was a school exclusively for white men. It wasn’t until 1945 that white women were even allowed to take the same classes as white men. Five years later, in 1950, the first Black undergraduate students attended the university, three of them women. These are some of the stories of these Black women trailblazers at UD.

Kathryn Young Hazeur was one of the first Black women to receive a graduate degree from UD in 1951. She entered a campus that would only begin to desegregate after the court ruling in 1950, a year before she graduated. She recalled in a 2004 interview, “That was an awfully tense year. But whenever a professor was around, everyone wanted to get along with me.” Braving discrimination and harassment, Hazeur successfully graduated and went on to have a lifelong career in public education in the state of Delaware. She was inducted in 2010 into the Hall of Fame of Delaware Women. Hazeur passed away in 2011 at the age of 87, having been a teacher and principal for over 40 years as well as the first director of the Head Start program in the state of Delaware. 

Cora Berry-Saunders was another one of the first Black women to receive a graduate degree at UD. Like Hazeur, she came to UD in 1950 and received her masters in Education in 1951. Before attending UD, Berry-Saunders was a teacher at Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware. Prior to the end of desegregation, she also taught at New London Avenue Elementary School. She was a pillar in the New London Road community. After her graduation, Berry-Saunders continued her prolific teaching career at Central Elementary School as its 3rd and 4th grade teacher. Her students recount having to memorize and read aloud very long poems on a weekly basis in class. To this day, her students “have no fear of standing up and speaking publicly.” Many of her former students went on to be UD graduates. Cora Berry-Saunders passed away in 1983, leaving behind a lasting legacy on not only her students, but also the Black community in Newark as a whole. 

Two more Black women who broke barriers at UD were Marjorie Lockett Lewis and Valeria M. Ross. Ross graduated from UD in 1955, making her one of the first Black women undergraduate students to attend UD. She is pictured in the 1955 University of Delaware Yearbook in the Seniors section with a major in Arts and Science. Marjorie Lewis (maiden name Lockett) graduated in 1956 with a major in education. From her yearbook photo, she was involved in the Home Economics club for most of her time at UD. Lewis passed away in 2019, at the age of 85. 

All of these Black women paved a path for UD to become a more inclusive and diverse school. They faced racism and a hostile environment. However, with courage they persisted and succeeded.

Sources Consulted:

“Delaware Women’s Hall of Fame: Kathryn Young Hazeur”  https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/owaa/artwork/kathryn-young-hazeur 

“Women and Diversity: Then and Now”  https://sites.udel.edu/women100yrs/2014/11/08/women-and-diversity-then-and-now/ 

“Yearbook photograph of 1956 UD senior class member Marjorie Lockett”  https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/parker/exhibition-item/yearbook-photographs-of-1956-ud-senior-class-members-marjorie-lockett-and-leonard-l-williams-2/ 

“A History of Women at the University of Delaware”  https://www1.udel.edu/udmessenger/vol23no1/stories/pdfs/womens-timeline.pdf 

“Marjorie L. Lewis”. Delaware Online. September 25th, 2019  https://www.delawareonline.com/obituaries/wnj094692 

"Yearbook photographs of 1955 UD senior class member Valeria M. Ross(23)”  https://udspace.udel.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/0546d2a0-9196-4ec7-8289-5a306a32ea3e/content 

Image Credit: 

“Yearbook photograph of 1956 UD senior class member Marjorie Lockett”  https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/parker/exhibition-item/yearbook-photographs-of-1956-ud-senior-class-members-marjorie-lockett-and-leonard-l-williams-2/ 

Civil Rights and Newark's Main Street(1961)

LOCATION: Main Street

Today, Main Street in Newark is a mainstay in every University of Delaware student’s lives. Whether it be for prescriptions, a nice meal, or coffee, Main Street is a hub of local and student life in Newark. This was not always the case. Main Street was heavily segregated, and even after segregation became illegal in the state of Delaware, many Black residents, and students, felt that they were not welcome. 

In September of 1961, the UD student newspaper, The Review, published a story on the efforts of six graduate students to widen the scope of desegregation on Main Street: Jim White, Duane Nicoles, Nora Sutton, Kitty Aufrecht, Ann Millbury, and one as yet unidentified student. While some businesses were open to Black patrons at the time, there were a good many establishments that were not. These graduate students were aided by George Wilson, the first African American council member to be elected and the sole Black Newark council member at the time. A lifelong advocate of civil rights, Wilson had a deep commitment to housing equality and was also a contractor who built many houses for Black residents in New London Road; he is the namesake of Newark’s historic George Wilson Community Center today. Wilson emphasized the difficulties Black residents in the city faced to council members in a 1961 meeting, stating that when Black residents got up in the morning “the first thing they are aware of is not how hot or cold it is or how hungry they are, but that they are a Negro and they live in Newark.” As part of their 1961 activism, the graduate students, along with several members of UD faculty, circulated a petition that showed overwhelming faculty support for the desegregation of Main Street. 

This was part of a larger activist movement across the state that stretched from Wilmington, where Louis Redding headed legal defense of a sit-in, to Dover, where the Student Committee Against Discrimination held a sit-in at the Hollywood Diner. This committee included students from Delaware State University as well as several of the UD graduate students who led the charge to desegregate Main Street. 

Despite these activists’ efforts, in Newark the image of Main Street as a place for white people only persisted in the minds of Black residents. In Oral Interviews conducted with Black Newark residents, this sentiment is clear. Richard Matthews recalls that when walking to high school along Main Street, buses of white students would pass, and sometimes shout and throw things at him and his friends. In an interview with Marva Bond-Smith, she recalled that at Deer Park Tavern, Black patrons were forced to go to the back door to buy food or drink. Bond-Smith still refuses to go to the historic tavern to this day. Another resident, Patti Wilson-Aden stated that Deer Park Tavern was “notoriously racist.” She also recalled there were establishments on Main Street that her parents warned her not to go to even after segregation ended. She also stated, however, that Newark was a great place to grow up, and that the community was very tight knit. Richard Matthews also has fond memories of growing up in Newark, recalling that when he wasn’t being accosted by white students, he and his friends would stop by a newsstand on Main Street if they had a few nickels to spare. 

Newark’s Main Street today is a hub of community life, whether student of UD or resident, the sense of community is palpable. As seen, this has not always been the case. Thanks to the tireless efforts of student activists and politicians like George Wilson, Main Street is rightfully a place where the whole of the community can gather. 

Sources Consulted:

" Grad Petitioners Plan Wider Integration Try ", Newark Review, September 29, 1961

" Segregation in Dover Helped Spur changes in Delaware Law"  Delaware Online, July 7, 2020

 "Oral Histories from Delaware Citizens Now Available Online " UDaily, April 14, 2017

Image Credit:

" Grad Petitioners Plan Wider Integration Try ", Newark Review, September 29, 1961

Dr. Hilda Davis joined the English Department becoming the first female African Ameircan faculty member(1965)

LOCATION: Memorial Hall

Along with becoming the first female African American faculty member, Dr. Hilda Davis was instrumental in establishing and directing the Writing Center and served on various faculty committees, ranging in focus from racial diversity to educational standards. Dr. Davis also made significant contributions to the field of mental health, where she was the director of research at Governor Bacon Health Center.

In 1986, she was awarded with the University Medal of Distinction and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Delaware Women.

Sources Consulted and Image Credit:

 "Memorial Sercive for Fomer Faculty Member"  UDaily, Date Unknown

Linda Marks: UD's First Black Homecoming Queen

UD’s campus in 1970 was a turbulent one. With about 12,000 white students to 200 Black students, the environment was hostile. Black students found themselves struggling in an environment that so obviously did not want them there. Under the leadership of Mr. Richard "Dickie" Wilson, who was the director of Upward Bound at the time, the Black Student Union was formed in 1968. Here, Black students found a space to breathe and make themselves heard. In the words of alumna Miss Linda L. Marks, “It was the best of times and the worst of times.” 

In 1970, homecoming was the center of social life. The celebrations included a parade that started at the intersection of South College Ave. and Main Street and continued down South College Ave. to what is now the Bob Carpenter Center. The male members of the Black Student Union, like Mr. Ron Whittington and the Honorable Jea Street, decided that 1970 would be the year that UD would have its first Black homecoming queen. With a unanimous vote, the BSU nominated Miss Linda L. Marks, a junior, as their representative. The BSU got together to build a float for the parade on a flatbed truck at Mr. Richard "Dickie" Wilson’s house, and participated in the parade homecoming weekend. This was the Black student body’s way of demanding space on campus. Literally carving out a space in the established social status quo for themselves. 

However, the white student body decided to nominate a chicken, a literal blue hen named Cynthia,  for their homecoming queen that year. John Corradin, the president of the Commuter Association, sponsored the nomination. When asked by a Review reporter at the time, Corrdin explained that the nomination was not a joke, rather “it is a reflection of changes,” and that he hoped it would lead “to the eradication of the whole event [homecoming]. The rah rah activity is a thing of the past as students look at life more seriously.” Cynthia the hen won in a landslide, with double the votes of any other white candidate. This switch of mindset of the white student body at the same time as the first Black woman’s nomination is not a coincidence. There was no head to head vote between Marks and the chicken, as the white student body candidate and the BSU’s candidate were considered entirely separate. In the words of Dr. Norma Gaines-Hanks, a member of the BSU at the time, said “it was segregated but [the university] would never say that.” 

Whatever the ultimate intention was of the white students who nominated the hen, it was inconsequential to the members of BSU, and to Marks herself. Marks stated that “whether they put a chicken out there or not, I walked out there with pride, with dignity, and self-respect because I was representing my people of the BSU.” Marks walked out on the football field to applause and accepted her bouquet of roses, and UD officially crowned its first Black homecoming queen. 

Sources Consulted:

Interviews with Dr. Norma Gaines-Hanks, Linda Marks, Jea Street, and Ron Whittington

" Hen Named Homecoming Queen" , The Review, October 12th 1970

 "Legends and Lore: 'A Fowl Plot'"  UD Magazine, 2019

Image Credit:

" Hen Named Homecoming Queen" , The Review, October 12th 1970

UD's First Black Fraternity: The Psi Zeta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi(1974)

The Psi Zeta chapter of Omega Psi Phi was the first Black fraternity on the University of Delaware campus. The chapter was officially chartered in 1974. However, the prospective brothers-led by UD student Wayne Crosse-overcame several obstacles. In 1967 when Crosse attempted to recruit other men to be members of Omega Psi Phi,  they faced opposition from Richard ‘Dickie’ Wilson. Fondly remembered by many as the informal ‘Dean of Black Students’ Wilson led the College Try and the Upward Bound programs that provided a pathway to UD for Black students as well as aid. As an African American dean of students, Wilson offered Black students mentorship and support. When Wilson heard the news of Crosse’s activities, he was not in favor of the idea. Although Wilson was a member of the Beta chapter of Omega Psi Phi at Lincoln University, he believed that any Black student organization should include women. (It was this idea that led to the formation of the Black Student Union). In addition to concerns about gender equity, Wilson was uneasy about the possibility of the fraternity lowering Black students’ GPAs, and possibly leading students to flunk out of the university. Wilson recognized the extremely high stakes for not just the prospective brothers, but for UD’s Black student population as a whole. Although the University was integrated in the 1970s, it remained an overwhelmingly ‘white school’. Black students at the time faced opposition and discrimination from the majority white body. In short, the position of Black students and Black faculty was not secure, and any danger to this balance was of great concern to Wilson. 

In 1969 Wayne Crosse had to pause his efforts to found the Omega Psi Phi upon being drafted and serving in the Air Force until 1973. When he returned to UD, the graduate Nu Upsilon chapter of Omega Psi Phi pledged four brothers. With the help of the Nu Upsilon chapter, 13 initial pledges were made on the University of Delaware campus. Now, the new brothers had to get approval from the University. They addressed Wilson’s fears by presenting Walt Cieko, Director of Resident Life at the time, with proof that the brothers had higher GPAs than other Black students on campus. Cieko then allowed the charter of the Psi Zeta chapter of Omega Psi Phi, making it the first Black fraternity at University of Delaware.

Sources Consulted:

Psi Zeta Website

 https://www.psizetaques.com/about-psi-zeta 

Brilliance and Resilience: The Legacy of Richard "Dickie" Wilson

 https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/august/legacy-of-richard-wilson/ 

Image Credit:

 https://www.psizetaques.com/about-psi-zeta 

1968: Expanded Curriculum on Black Studies

LOCATION: The Green

For decades, students have utilized the Green to get to their classes, but when have students taken classes on Black or Africana studies? On September 20th, 1968, The Review reported on the University expanding course offerings to cover these topics. During this time, the Acting Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, John Worthen, expressed, “The University community recognizes this important area of study and faculty are continuing to consider the development of these new courses."

 "Expanded Curricula Focuses on Negro and Society"  The Review, September 20, 1968

Black Student Union Members Voice Frustration with Trabant(1970)

LOCATION: Trabant Student Center

The student center was named after former President Trabant of the University of Delaware, who at one time came under scrutiny from Black students as they voiced their demands for an adequate director of the emerging Black studies program. These students were largely part of the Black Student Union, which formed on campus in 1968. The Review reported that on a day known as “Honors Day,” a group of 30 students in the Black Student Union took the chance to address the crowd regarding their grievances. As a result of a “bungled” search for a Black Studies Program director at the hands of Trabant, the university failed to secure a director of the program and thus, “pushed the development of a Black Studies Program back one year.”

Sources Consulted:

 "Trabant, Blacks at Honors Day"  The Review, May 11, 1970

The Minority Center(1976)

Though the University took action in response to Black Student Union protesters, University administrators failed to take the steps that the Union demanded. The Black Student Union requested a ‘Black Cultural Center’. The University delivered a center for all minorities on campus. As Reverend Vincent Oliver, the first director of the Minority Center (who served from 1976 to 1979), described, the Dean of Students at the time was adamant that the Minority Center would not cater only to Black students. In this demand, UD’s administration expressly ignored the wishes of the Black campus community. Though the concept of the Minority Center sounds like an improvement, because the mission of the center was so general, it did not realize the protesters' hopes; programs sought to meet the needs of all minorities on campus, a goal which was too broad to provide resources to everyone. Although the Minority Center did not meet the needs of the Black student body, the Ujamaa House became the unofficial hub of the community. In 1985, the Minority Center was renamed the Center for Black Culture, and served only the Black student body. The Minority Center under Rev.  Oliver attempted to create events that would cater to the Black student population, but often the events were relegated to second-class venues with smaller audience capacities. In a recent oral history Rev. Oliver described the limitations of being an employee of the University, and therefore unable to voice his dissatisfaction with the Minority Center. This frustration is also discussed in Reverend Oliver’s interview. Listen  here . The Minority Center was renamed the Center for Black Culture in 1985, and took on the role of specifically Black students at UD. Pictured is the current Center for Black Culture.

Sources Consulted:

Center for Black Culture: About Us

 https://sites.udel.edu/cbc/about/#:~:text=The%20Center%20for%20Black%20Culture%20is%20located%20at%20192%20South,5%3A30%20p.m.%20on%20Fridays. 

Oral Interview with Revered Oliver

 https://findingaids.lib.udel.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/20593 

The Ujamaa House

LOCATION: 231 S. College Ave.

"In the spring of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Student Union occupied the Student Center for a two-day period and presented a list of demands to the University administration to address their feelings of isolation on an overwhelmingly white and unwelcoming campus." (From  The Center of Black Culture )

To address these concerns, a University commitee met to examine the needs of African American Students at the University of Delaware. In their final report, they recommended that the University create a center for African American students to organize, meet, and more generally, provide a community for the students. This eventually led to the creation of the Minority Center.

However, these needs were not met with the creation of the Minority Center. The community did some reorganizing and moved the Upward Bound and College Try programs, and the Special Advisor to the Vice President for Student Affairs into a house at 231 South College Avenue. Students named the building the Ujamaa House and it became a gathering space for Black students, faculty, and administrators. This space filled the hole that Minority Center was supposed to fill. Although these students and employees benefitted from the space, they continued lobbying for the creation of a true cultural center.

The Ujamma House was torn down December 2022.

Sources Consulted:

Center for Black Culture: Our History and Heritage

 https://sites.udel.edu/cbc/about/#history 

UDaily: House on South Campus set to be Torn Down

 https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2021/december/house-on-south-college-to-be-torn-down/ 

Muhammed Ali Visits UD(1970)

LOCATION: Carpenter Sports Building(Little Bob)

Professional boxer and activist Muhammed Ali spoke to a crowd of over 2,000 students at the Carpenter in May of 1970. He discussed the racism of the “white education system” and the need for Black people “to have a country of their own,” echoing views of Black power organizations.

Sources Consulted:

 "Muhammad Ali Demands Separatism, Black Country"  The Review, May 6, 1970

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (1975)

LOCATION: Perkins Student Center

On October 26th, 1975, the Mu Pi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., the first historically African American sorority at UD, was chartered by 11 women. The Mu Pi Chapter is based upon the organization's Five-Point Programmatic Thrust; Economic Development, Educational Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health, Political Awareness and Involvement. The women who chartered Mu Pi, called the Charter Line, faced a university environment where a majority of Black life on campus was tied to athletics. As Esther Welch, a member of the Charter Line, says in an interview with the UD Messenger, “People knew the athletes but there was no voice for Black females.” The chartering members of Mu Pi created their own voice, having faced resistance from the Pan-Hellenic Council at the time. They were trailblazers in every sense of the word. Not only was Mu Pi the first Black sorority on campus, the chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. started before the founding of the Center for Black Culture, and was involved in its creation. The Sorority members were involved in discussion for creating the space for Black culture on campus. 

In 2022, six sisters of Mu Pi, five of them Charter Line members, oversaw the donation of a collection of items related to the chapter to the University Archives. The items that were donated included paddles, door knockers, uniforms, and newsletters. In a UDaily interview about the donation Charter Line member Edith Moyer said “It’s history, and I think all history should be preserved. Documentation of your history is the best authentic gift you can give to help make the world a better place.” The items donated are available to use for research purposes, and may be used in future displays. 

The Mu Pi chapter of DST thrives today on campus, and has since been joined by several other chapters of Black sororities. The members of Mu Pi paved the way for hundreds of Black women to find community and family on UD’s campus. 

Sources Consulted:

The Review: Delta Sigma Theta Celebrates 40 Years of Sisterhood

 https://udreview.com/delta-sigma-theta-celebrates-40-years-of-sisterhood/ 

UD Messenger: The Ladies of Mu Pi

 https://www1.udel.edu/udmessenger/vol24no1/stories/alumni-mu-pi.html 

UDaily: First Black Sorority at UD Donates Memorabilia to University Archives

 https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/june/delta-sigma-theta-african-american-sorority-archives-memorabilia/ 

Image Credit:

 https://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2016/dec/mu-pi-chapter-122115.html 

Barbers and Black Hair(1985)

LOCATION: The Current CBC (192 S College Ave)

The January 31, 1985 issue of The Review explores how barbers in the University of Delaware area clipped with a racial bias, claiming that Black hair was more diffuclt and timely to cut forcing them to charge higher prices specifically for Black customers. This specific racism and discrimination was uncovered when four Black students reported the incident of barbers charging more to the Director of the Minority Center, now known as the Center for Black Culture.

One of the students, Tim Cerrington who is featured in this Review article, noted that he spoke to Judith Gibson, the special assistant to the Provost for minority affairs, to propose that the Minority Center hire a Barber specifically equipped to cutting Black students' hair, however she declined to comment on the proposal.

The foundation of this discrimination is not based in Barbers being unble to cut Black hair, because if one knows how to cut Black hair, it takes the same amount of time as any other customer, but the difference is that barbers were intentionally denying service by charging enourmous prices.

Sources Consutled:

"Blacks Claim Barbers Clip with a Racial Bias" The Review, January 31, 1985

Provost opens up Minority programs to all students regardless of race(2003)

Location: Hullihen Hall (Provost Office)

In 2003, the University decided that scholarships exclusively created to support minority students was unconstitutional and anti-affirmative action.

The Provost received communication from Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, who also sent legal doctrines to 200 other colleges regarding this. Although there was legal pressure to change this, leaders of the NAACP and other similar organizations, outwardly disagreed with this notion and questioned how programs designed for minority students hurts whites.

The programs cited are still open to all students regardless of racial background, some of which include NUCLEUS for students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Sources Consulted:

 "Colleges Open Minority Aid to All Comers"  New York Times, March 14, 2006

Africana Studies Department is given Departmental Status(2006)

Location: Ewing Hall (Africana Studies Dept)

The Black American Studies program saw tremendous growth when Dr. James E. Newton was appointed director of the program in 1973. It was under his leadership, serving until 1994, that the program flourished. Dr. Newton joined the UD faculty in 1972, and by 1973 he became an associate professor, and director of the Black American Studies Program. Dr. Newton was a guiding force in the fight for diversity at the University. Carrying his legacy forward, the Africana Department gained departmental status in 2006. Now, the department offers a major and minor option, with 11 core faculty members, as well as programs like the African American Public Humanities Initiative(AAPHI) that assists prospective doctoral students achieve a degree in English, History, or Art History. 

Sources Consulted:

Department of Africana Studies: From the Chair

 https://www.africanastudies.udel.edu/about-afra/from-the-chair 

UDaily: In Memoriam: James E. Newton

 https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/june/in-memoriam-james-newton/ 

Delaware Online: Frank R. Scarpitti

 https://www.delawareonline.com/obituaries/wnj088416 

University of Delaware Anti-Racism Initaitive is founded(August 2020)

LOCATION: Munroe Hall (History Dept)

In response to continuing occurrences of violence and systemic racism throughout the nation and the continued growth of the racial justice Black Lives Matter movement, The University of Delaware faculty, staff, and students have initiated a new grassroots UD Anti-Racism iniative (UDARI) to address instances of racial prejudice and implicit bias on campus.

The goal of the UD Anti-Racism Initiative is to bring together like-minded individuals and groups to take action against systemic racism and contribute to the reduction of racial disparities on campus and in the larger community.

To do this, UDARI contributes to the University’s strong tradition of research, teaching, artistic practices, community engagement, and service by promoting racial equality and equity by challenging systemic racism and promoting anti-racism.

Sources Consulted:

UDARI Website

 https://sites.udel.edu/antiracism-initiative/ 

Kasiyah Tatem becomes the first Black woman to be elected as Student Body President(2021)

LOCATION: Memorial Hall

Kasiyah Tatem was the first Black woman to be elected as student body President. She was President for the 2021-2022 school term. At the time of her election, she was a Political Science Major with a concentration in Law, Politics and Theory. During her term as president, Tatem emphasized student mental health, and worked to increase diversity on campus. Outside of her involvement in SGA, Tatem was the president of Sisters on the Move, an organization dedicated to uplifting women of color. Tatem is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and was inducted into the Lambda Gamma Chapter in Spring of 2021. Tatem is currently a Program Officer at the American Council of Young Political Leaders.

Sources Consulted:

Blue Hen Spotlight: Kasiyah Tatem

 https://www.udel.edu/students/news/2020/december/blue-hen-spotlight-kasiyah-tatem/