IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 93 
Honoring the life and work of Louis Lorenzo Redding, whose lifelong dedica-
tion to civil rights and service stand as an example of leadership for 
all people. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 28, 2020 
Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Honoring the life and work of Louis Lorenzo Redding, whose 
lifelong dedication to civil rights and service stand as 
an example of leadership for all people. 
Whereas Louis Lorenzo Redding (referred to in this preamble 
as ‘‘Louis L. Redding’’) was born on October 25, 1901, 
in Alexandria, Virginia, the eldest of 5 children born to 
Lewis Alfred and Lillian Holmes Redding; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding was an educator, attorney, and 
lifelong activist who worked on civil rights and edu-
cational issues; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding graduated from Howard High 
School in 1919, which, at that time, was the only public 
high school for African-American students in Delaware; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:54 Feb 28, 2020
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC93.IH
HC93
pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
•HCON 93 IH 
Whereas Louis L. Redding received a bachelor’s degree from 
Brown University in 1923; 
Whereas, while at Brown University, Louis L. Redding and 
7 other men established a chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha 
fraternity in Providence, Rhode Island; 
Whereas, in 1923, Louis L. Redding was the first African 
American awarded the prestigious William Gaston Prize 
for excellence in oratory and, as a result, delivered a com-
mencement speech at Brown University; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding became an English instructor and 
the vice principal of Fessenden Academy outside of 
Ocala, Florida, the oldest continuously operated school 
originally for African-American students in Florida; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding left Fessenden Academy to teach 
English in the high school division of Morehouse College, 
a historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia; 
Whereas, after 2 years of teaching, Louis L. Redding enrolled 
in Harvard Law School in 1925; 
Whereas, in 1926, as a law student at Harvard Law School, 
Louis L. Redding was ejected from the Wilmington, 
Delaware, municipal court while protesting segregation of 
the courtroom; 
Whereas that municipal court was the first court in Wil-
mington, Delaware, to desegregate its gallery; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding graduated from Harvard Law 
School in 1928 as the only African American in a class 
of about 200 students; 
Whereas, in 1929, Louis L. Redding became the first African 
American to pass the Delaware bar; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:54 Feb 28, 2020
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC93.IH
HC93
pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
•HCON 93 IH 
Whereas Louis L. Redding remained the only African-Amer-
ican lawyer in Delaware for 26 years; 
Whereas, in 1949, Louis L. Redding was admitted to the 
Delaware Bar Association, an organization from which 
Louis L. Redding had been excluded for 20 years after 
having passed the Delaware bar; 
Whereas, in 1950, Louis L. Redding and Jack Greenberg, a 
lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 
Fund, filed the case of Parker v. University of Delaware 
to protest the segregated college system in Delaware; 
Whereas, in August 1950, Chancellor Collins Seitz ruled in 
Parker v. University of Delaware, 75 A.2d 225 (Del. Ch. 
1950), that, under Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 
(1896), the State of Delaware violated the Constitution 
of the United States by offering a separate but not equal 
education in the State college and university system; 
Whereas, in 1951, Louis L. Redding and Jack Greenberg 
filed— 
(1) Belton v. Gebhart, a case that concerned the de-
segregation of high schools; and 
(2) Bulah v. Gebhart, a case that concerned the de-
segregation of elementary schools; 
Whereas, in 1952, the Belton and Bulah cases were consoli-
dated in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where, in 
Belton v. Gebhart, 87 A.2d 862 (Del. Ch. 1952), Chan-
cellor Collins Seitz ordered the Delaware State Board of 
Education to open all schools in Delaware to African 
Americans; 
Whereas the Delaware State Board of Education appealed 
the decision of Chancellor Collins Seitz to the Supreme 
Court of Delaware, which upheld the decision of the 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:54 Feb 28, 2020
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC93.IH
HC93
pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
•HCON 93 IH 
and ruled that a private entity may not discriminate on 
the basis of race if the State has approved, encouraged, 
or facilitated the relevant private conduct; 
Whereas, in 1965, Louis L. Redding became a public de-
fender for the State of Delaware and fought for the 
rights of poor clients for nearly 20 years thereafter; 
Whereas, in 1984, Louis L. Redding retired after 55 years 
of practicing law; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding was a member of many national 
organizations, including— 
(1) the National Bar Association; 
(2) the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People; 
(3) the National Lawyers Guild; and 
(4) the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding was awarded the Martin Luther 
King, Jr. Memorial Award by the National Education As-
sociation and an honorary Doctor of Law degree from 
Brown University; 
Whereas the University of Delaware established the Louis L. 
Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy 
in the School of Education; 
Whereas Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Kluger de-
scribed Louis L. Redding as a man who fought, largely 
alone, for the civil rights and liberties of Black Dela-
wareans; 
Whereas former Secretary of Transportation William T. Cole-
man, Jr., stated that the giants of the civil rights move-
ment were Houston Hastings, Louis L. Redding, and 
Thurgood Marshall; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:54 Feb 28, 2020
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC93.IH
HC93
pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
•HCON 93 IH 
Whereas, on September 29, 1998, Louis L. Redding died at 
the age of 96 in Lima, Pennsylvania; 
Whereas Louis L. Redding broke down barriers and paved 
the way for countless African-American lawyers to follow 
in his footsteps, including— 
(1) Theophilus Nix, Sr., the second African Amer-
ican to pass the Delaware bar exam; 
(2) Joshua W. Martin III, the first African-Amer-
ican president of the Delaware Bar Association; 
(3) Frank H. Hollis, the first African-American at-
torney to represent corporate clients in Delaware; 
(4) Paulette Sullivan Moore, the first African-Amer-
ican woman to pass the Delaware bar exam; 
(5) Leonard L. Williams, the second African-Amer-
ican judge in Delaware; 
(6) Haile L. Alford, the first African-American fe-
male judge in Delaware; 
(7) Arlene Coppadge, the first African-American fe-
male judge appointed to the Delaware Family Court; 
(8) Gregory M. Sleet, the first African American to 
be appointed as the United States Attorney for the Dis-
trict of Delaware and the first African-American judge to 
serve on the United States District Court for the District 
of Delaware; 
(9) Alex J. Smalls, the first African-American chief 
justice of the Delaware Court of Common Pleas; and 
(10) Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, the first African- 
American Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of 
Chancery and the first African-American justice to serve 
on the Supreme Court of Delaware; and 
Whereas Louis L. Redding is remembered as an individual 
who figured prominently in the struggle for desegregation 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:54 Feb 28, 2020
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC93.IH
HC93
pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
•HCON 93 IH 
and as a lawyer who never lost a desegregation case: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress honors the life and work of 
Louis Lorenzo Redding, a civil servant whose lifelong dedi-
cation to justice and equality stand as an outstanding ex-
ample of leadership for all people. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
20:54 Feb 28, 2020
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\HC93.IH
HC93
pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS