The majority of first-year students who recently settled into the newly-built residence hall at the University of Delaware probably had never heard of Louis Lorenzo Redding, the pioneering civil rights lawyer whose name is emblazoned across their brick dormitory building.
But, in 1950, Redding singlehandedly changed the course of the university when he successfully filed a lawsuit on behalf of 10 African-American applicants who had been denied admittance to the university because they were Black. As a result of the lawsuit, UD became the first state-funded undergraduate institution in the nation to desegregate by court order.
Founded in 1743, because the University of Delaware had to be forced to admit Black students, it has long been a source of public embarrassment—a black eye across its storied history.
But in recent years—partly due to efforts made by UD president Dr. Patrick Harker—the university has been engaged in an ongoing campaign to confront its discriminatory past and right historical wrongs.
“In no small measure, Louis Redding made us the university we are today,” said Harker in a speech announcing the decision to name a dorm after Redding. “He showed us the path to diversity, equity, and inclusion—to justice and fairness for all.
“We think Louis Redding deserves his name on a building,” Harker continued, “and we hope that the students who live in the building, or visit it, might be especially committed to sustaining this great man’s legacy.”
Born in 1901, Redding grew up in Wilmington, Del., but could not attend UD and was forced to complete his undergraduate studies at Brown University. After spending several years on the faculty of Morehouse College, he entered Harvard Law School and was the only Black in the graduating class of 1928.
