Black History Highlights from HCA at Woodburn

As part of the First State Historical Park program, Woodburn Hall, the Governor’s Mansion, offers special programs on the first Saturday of every month.  On those First Saturdays in the First State the Governor’s Mansion is open for tours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is free to the visiting public. 

Among the historic portraits and other works of art that grace Woodburn Hall are items from the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs collection.  These historic artifacts bring into focus the contributions of trailblazing African Americans and reflects their long-running struggle for educational access and civic equality. 

Across generations, Black Delawareans have pursued knowledge and achievement often in the face of limited access, segregation, and systemic inequity. The African American experience in Delaware remains rooted in a longstanding commitment to education, civic engagement, and collective advancement.

Institutions such as Howard High School, formerly the only high school for Black students in Delaware for decades, and the (Delaware) State College for Colored Students, now known as Delaware State University, became more than schools. Centers of intellectual growth and leadership, these important institutions helped launch the careers of individuals whose influence extends far beyond campus walls from Alice Dunbar-Nelson, educator and activist, to Louis L. Redding, civil rights attorney whose litigation resulted in the desegregation of the University of Delaware.

For Black Delawareans, the promise of American democracy has required sustained effort, expanding access to education, defending the right to vote, and insisting that liberty and justice be realized in practice as well as principle. Advocacy has taken many forms; the written word, the courtroom, the ballot box, artistic expression, and public protest.

The objects in this display, “Foundations of Change: Black Education and Civic Action in Delaware,” which include diplomas, photographs, artworks, and articles of wearable protest, reflect the continuum of change. The collection features photographs of innovators such as Redding, alongside paintings by local Black Artists such as Jacob Lawrence. Visitors to the Mansion may also view a reproduction of a diploma of a woman educated in segregated schools alongside a framed t-shirt and mask from the Black Lives Matter protests in Wilmington in 2020.

All these items, from the Historical and Cultural Affairs collection, speak to generational advocacy in the fight for representation, civic participation, and equality. The presence of these artifacts in the Governor’s mansion, the historic center of Delaware political life, creates a bridge between Delaware’s political history and the voices of African American leaders whose advocacy continues to inspire systemic change.