Named in honor of Delaware's first Afro-American attorney, graduate of Howard High School, Brown University, and Harvard Law School, admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1929, pioneer in the struggle for equality and tireless advocate in civil rights cases of national significance.
Successfully representing victims of racial discrimination in a series of landmark cases, he gave new meaning to the concept of equality under the law.
In the courts of Delaware, Parker vs. University of Delaware in 1950 established the right to an unsegregated college education.
In the Supreme Court of the United States, Belton vs. Gebhart and Bulah vs. Gebhart (decided with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954) rejected the "separate but equal" doctrine that had allowed segregated public schools, and Burton VS. Wilmington Parking Authority in 1961 vindicated the right to non-discriminatory treatment in publicly owned facilities, even when leased to private organizations.
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