Leland Ware, the University's first Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy, delivered an inaugural, public lecture Oct. 30 to an audience of about 250 students, faculty, staff and community members in Loudis Recital Hall.

In his lecture, Ware traced the history of what he called "the first phase of the civil rights movement" in the United States, which consisted of a series of lawsuits successfully attacking legal segregation as unconstitutional. Those court battles, Ware said, were part of an organized legal strategy that began around 1930 when the NAACP decided to sue various states, focusing on their segregated educational systems, with the expectation that segregation eventually "would collapse under its own weight."

Ware also spoke of the accomplishments of the late Mr. Redding, who in 1929 became Delaware's first African-American lawyer, and his key role in desegregating Delaware schools, including the University, and public places. Mr. Redding, with Thurgood Marshall, argued and won the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" system of school segregation.

The University, with wide public support, created the endowed Redding Chair to memorialize Mr. Redding and to study how the law can be used to shape public policy. Ware, a noted expert in civil rights law and a former trial attorney and law professor, told the audience he will serve as a resource for the University and the larger community and plans an annual symposium on issues of race, diversity, law and public policy.

"The battle for equality continues on several fronts," he said. "The work that Louis Redding began more than 70 years ago is far from over. Much remains to be done."

–Ann Manser

Photo by Jack Buxbaum