Louis L. Redding, a famed civil rights lawyer whose work helped lead to the desegregation of the nation’s public schools, died Sept. 28 at age 96.
Representing parents of black students from Claymont and Hockessin, Del., Mr. Redding won a significant victory in 1952 when the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered that the students be admitted to previously all-white schools. The state supreme court affirmed the decision.
The case was among those consolidated by the U.S. Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which led to the 1954 ruling overturning school segregation. As part of the Brown proceedings, Mr. Redding was one of the lawyers who argued the Delaware case, Gebhart v. Belton, before the high court.
Mr. Redding, who grew up in Wilmington, Del., was a graduate of Harvard Law School and became Delaware’s first black lawyer at age 28.
--JOETTA L. SACK
James E. Jones, the first black president of the Los Angeles school board, died Sept. 23. He was 82.
Mr. Jones, a civil rights activist and ordained minister, was elected to the school board in 1965. He remained as a member until 1969, and he served as the board’s president from 1968 to 1969.
Mr. Jones supported year-round education to alleviate overcrowding and voluntary busing to integrate Los Angeles schools.
--ADRIENNE D. COLES
