[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 148 (Friday, October 16, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO THE LATE LOUIS REDDING, ESQ.

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 16, 1998

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the memory of Louis 
Redding, Esq., a pioneer of the civil rights movement who died earlier 
this month at the age of 96. Louis Redding's legal efforts changed the 
very fabric of our society. He played a key role in the historic Brown 
versus Board of Education case, which held that the underlying 
principle behind racial segregation, separate but equal, was 
unconstitutional.
  Louis Redding's life had a particularly profound impact in Delaware. 
After graduating from Brown University and Harvard Law School, Louis 
Redding was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1929 as the State's first 
black lawyer. Despite tremendous hatred and numerous death threats, he 
went on to integrate the University of Delaware. In 1961, Redding won a 
U.S. Supreme Court case that ended segregation at Wilmington's Eagle 
Coffee Shoppe.
  Historians debate among themselves whether history is made by 
courageous individuals or broader social forces. I believe underlying 
social forces create opportunities for courageous individuals to seize. 
There is no doubt that Louis Redding was one of those rare individuals 
who clung to his principles and carried Delaware on his shoulders to a 
new level of social understanding and mutual respect.
  Delaware and the nation are without Louis Redding today, but the 
memories of his strong leadership, moral courage, integrity, and 
devotion to the equality of mankind will live on in our hearts and be 
an example to follow.

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