[Pages S5347-S5348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

HONORING THE LIFE AND WORK OF LOUIS LORENZO REDDING

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of
S. Con. Res 37 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 37) 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.

There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the
Senate proceeded to consider the concurrent resolution.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I further ask that the concurrent
resolution be agreed to; the Coons amendment to the preamble at the
desk be considered and agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed
to; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the
table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 37) was agreed to.
The amendment (No. 2638) was agreed to, as follows:

(Purpose: To amend the preamble)

Strike the preamble and insert the following:
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 Mary Ann Holmes Redding;
Whereas Louis L. Redding was an educator, attorney, and
lifelong activist who worked on civil rights and educational
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;
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
commencement 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
Wilmington, 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;
Whereas Louis L. Redding remained the only African-American
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
desegregation of high schools; and
(2) Bulah v. Gebhart, a case that concerned the
desegregation of elementary schools;
Whereas, in 1952, the Belton and Bulah cases were
consolidated in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where, in
Belton v. Gebhart, 87 A.2d 862 (Del. Ch. 1952), Chancellor
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 Chancellor in
Gebhart v. Belton, 91 A.2d 137 (Del. 1952);
Whereas the case then came before the Supreme Court of the
United States on a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of
Delaware;
Whereas Louis L. Redding and Jack Greenberg argued the case
alongside Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as the
last of a group of 5 school desegregation cases heard and
decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), and
Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954);
Whereas, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United
States held in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347
U.S. 483 (1954), that separate educational facilities for
racial minorities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the
14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, thus
holding that school segregation was unconstitutional;
Whereas, on February 21, 1961, Louis L. Redding argued to
the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Burton
v. Wilmington Parking Authority that a private company with a
relationship to a government agency was in violation of the
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States if the private company
refused to provide service to a customer on the basis of
race;
Whereas, in April 1961, the Supreme Court of the United
States established the principle of State action in Burton v.
Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715 (1961), 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 defender
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;

[[Page S5348]]

(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
Association 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
described Louis L. Redding as a man who fought, largely
alone, for the civil rights and liberties of Black
Delawareans;
Whereas former Secretary of Transportation William T.
Coleman, Jr., stated that the giants of the civil rights
movement were Houston Hastings, Louis L. Redding, and
Thurgood Marshall;
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 American to
pass the Delaware bar exam;
(2) Leonard L. Williams, the second African-American judge
in Delaware; and
(3) Haile L. Alford, the first African-American female
judge in Delaware; and
Whereas Louis L. Redding is remembered as an individual who
figured prominently in the struggle for desegregation and as
a lawyer who never lost a desegregation case: Now, therefore,
be it

The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
The concurrent resolution, with its preamble, as amended, reads as
follows:

S. Con. Res. 37

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 Mary Ann Holmes Redding;
Whereas Louis L. Redding was an educator, attorney, and
lifelong activist who worked on civil rights and educational
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;
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
commencement 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
Wilmington, 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;
Whereas Louis L. Redding remained the only African-American
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
desegregation of high schools; and
(2) Bulah v. Gebhart, a case that concerned the
desegregation of elementary schools;
Whereas, in 1952, the Belton and Bulah cases were
consolidated in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where, in
Belton v. Gebhart, 87 A.2d 862 (Del. Ch. 1952), Chancellor
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 Chancellor in
Gebhart v. Belton, 91 A.2d 137 (Del. 1952);
Whereas the case then came before the Supreme Court of the
United States on a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of
Delaware;
Whereas Louis L. Redding and Jack Greenberg argued the case
alongside Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as the
last of a group of 5 school desegregation cases heard and
decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), and
Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954);
Whereas, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United
States held in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347
U.S. 483 (1954), that separate educational facilities for
racial minorities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the
14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, thus
holding that school segregation was unconstitutional;
Whereas, on February 21, 1961, Louis L. Redding argued to
the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Burton
v. Wilmington Parking Authority that a private company with a
relationship to a government agency was in violation of the
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States if the private company
refused to provide service to a customer on the basis of
race;
Whereas, in April 1961, the Supreme Court of the United
States established the principle of State action in Burton v.
Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715 (1961), 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 defender
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
Association 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
described Louis L. Redding as a man who fought, largely
alone, for the civil rights and liberties of Black
Delawareans;
Whereas former Secretary of Transportation William T.
Coleman, Jr., stated that the giants of the civil rights
movement were Houston Hastings, Louis L. Redding, and
Thurgood Marshall;
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 American to
pass the Delaware bar exam;
(2) Leonard L. Williams, the second African-American judge
in Delaware; and
(3) Haile L. Alford, the first African-American female
judge in Delaware; and
Whereas Louis L. Redding is remembered as an individual who
figured prominently in the struggle for desegregation and as
a lawyer who never lost a desegregation case: Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That Congress honors the life and work of Louis
Lorenzo Redding, a civil servant whose lifelong dedication to
justice and equality stand as an outstanding example of
leadership for all people.

____________________