May 17th is the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark civil rights ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. To celebrate that seminal decision, Professor Leland Ware will join in conversation with federal Judge Thomas Ambro. The Brown Supreme Court case combined five cases; one of which was a consolidated case out of Delaware. This discussion focuses on the Delaware aspects of the case – the school children plaintiffs, the lawyers, the trial judge, the Supreme Court opinion, and the initial hostile response to it in Delaware.  

Leland Ware is the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. He has authored over 90 articles in academic journals and other publications on various aspects of Civil Rights law. He also is the co-author of two books, Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution and Choosing Equality: Essays and Narratives on the Desegregation Experience. Then Vice President Joseph Biden wrote the foreword to Choosing Equality.

Thomas Ambro is on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was in private practice in Wilmington, Delaware from 1976 to 2000 and was nominated to the Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Chanta Wilkinson and Ronald Collins organized the event and will introduce the program and speakers. Ms. Wilkinson, the founder of Chanta Wilkinson Consulting, provides diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting and assistance to organizations implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and best practices. She is a graduate of Rutgers University Law School and previously served as a Deputy Attorney General and an EEO/Affirmative Action Coordinator for the New Jersey Office of Attorney General. Mr. Collins is a retired law professor, co-founder of the History Book Festival, and the Lewes Public Library’s Distinguished Lecturer. He just released his latest book Tragedy on Trial: The Story of the Infamous Emmett Till Murder Trial.

We invite you to purchase a copy of Professor Ware's book, Brown v. Board of Education, from Browseabout Books by clicking HERE. Call-in orders are accepted at (302) 226-2665 or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website. Each copy purchased comes signed. Books will be available for sale and for signing at the event.

NOTE: this session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER and indicate which you prefer.

If you have need assistance with registration or getting your Zoom invitation, please email us.

Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for all our sessions. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.