Louis Lorenzo Redding was a prominent lawyer and civil rights advocate from Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

. Redding, the first African American to be admitted to the Delaware bar, was part of the NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

 legal team that challenged school segregation in the Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...

 case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Background

Louis Redding was born in Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

 to parents Lewis Alfred Redding and Mary Ann (Holmes) Redding, but moved to Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

 during his childhood. The Redding family resided at 203 East 10th Street in the heart of Wilmington's African-American community. Redding attended segregated public schools and graduated from Howard High School

Howard High School of Technology

Howard High School of Technology is a vocational-technical high school in Wilmington, Delaware and is the oldest of four high schools within the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District, which includes Delcastle Technical High School in Newport, Hodgson Vo-Tech High School in Glasgow,...

 (the only high school for African Americans in the state at the time) in 1919. He subsequently enrolled at Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 and graduated with honors in 1923. After college, Redding became vice principal of Fessenden Academy

Old Fessenden Academy Historic District

The Old Fessenden Academy Historic District is a U.S. historic district . It is located on the outskirts of Ocala, Florida, between Martin and Zuber. The address is 4200 Northwest 90th Street. It covers , and has 3 buildings and 1 structure....

 in Ocala, Florida

Ocala, Florida

Ocala is a city in Marion County, Florida. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 53,491. It is the county seat of Marion County, and the principal city of the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2007 population of 324,857.-History:Ocala...

 and later taught at Morehouse College

Morehouse College

Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....

 in Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

. In 1925, Redding entered Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

. He was the only African-American in Harvard Law's 1928 graduating class. Redding was admitted to the Delaware bar in the following year.

Career

During the 57 years that he practiced law in Delaware, Redding handled cases that successfully challenged discrimination in housing, public accommodations, employment, and the criminal justice system.

Redding represented the plaintiffs in several Delaware cases that challenged segregation in Delaware's public schools. In 1950, he compiled a case against the University of Delaware

University of Delaware

The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

, which barred black students, but in order to avoid a trial, the university's Chancellor decided to desegregate, becoming the first federally-funded institution to do so. In 1952, Redding presented the case for desegregating schools in Claymont

Claymont, Delaware

Claymont is a census-designated place in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 9,220 at the 2000 census.-History:...

 and Hockessin

Hockessin, Delaware

Hockessin is a census-designated place in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 12,902 at the 2000 census. The place name may be derived from the Lenape word "hòkèsa" meaning "pieces of bark" or from a misspelling of "occasion," as pronounced by the Quakers who settled...

. In 1954, he presented the Delaware case of Brown v. Board of Education. After his death in 1998, the University of Delaware

University of Delaware

The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

established the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy.

Personal

Louis Redding was the eldest of four children. Redding's brother, J. Saunders Redding, was a noted author and college professor. His sisters Lillian Redding Bailey and C. Gwendolyn Redding were teachers in the Wilmington School System. Louis Redding was married twice - first to Ruth Albert Cook Redding (whom he divorced) and then to Gwendolyn Carmen Kiah - and had three daughters - Ann, Rupa, and Judith.