Delaware’s Richard Allen School Prepared Young Black Men and Women for the Future
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Delaware did not have a comprehensive statewide education system. By 1915, the state’s schools were ranked among the poorest in the country. Black students often attended dilapidated schools under deplorable conditions; many didn’t attend at all.
Between 1919 and 1928, Pierre S. du Pont, entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist, and member of the wealthy and prominent du Pont family, funded over 80 new schools for Black students throughout the state, including 33 in Sussex County. Each school was given a number and the letter C, the designation for Colored.
The two-room Richard Allen School on Railroad Avenue in Georgetown, Del., opened in the late 1920s. The school is named for Richard Allen, a freed slave and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794 in Philadelphia.
In Delaware, segregation persisted until 1967, more than 10 years after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case ruled that segregating public schools by race was unconstitutional. The Allen School continuously served Black students in the Indian River School District until 1967 when desegregation was fully implemented in Delaware.
Although separately interviewed, 90-year-old Solomon Henry and 80-year-old Harry Crapper, both born and raised in Georgetown, commented that “the village brought us up.”
“Everyone knew each other and looked out for us,” Henry said.
Crapper’s wife, Marilyn, moved from nearby Selbyville to Georgetown when she was nine or 10 years old and also attended the Allen School and Jason High School. Forty years later, after she was widowed, she and Crapper renewed their acquaintance and married in 2009.
“We walked to school,” continued Crapper, who lived in the Ingramton neighborhood of Georgetown. “Everybody knew everybody. My parents’ door was always open to my friends. Suppertime was the best time to communicate with each other.”
With six brothers and a sister in his family, Henry fed the chickens and carried wood into his home before school. To earn money, he delivered morning newspapers.
Henry started first grade in 1938 and Crapper in 1948. Although 10 years younger, Crapper recalls that Henry looked out for him.
“It was called the Georgetown Colored School,” Henry explained. “First, the school was two rooms with three classes with three rows of students. The first row was first grade students, the second row, second-grade students; and the third row, third-grade students.”
“Later, two buildings, one for English and one for agriculture classes, were built on the site and classes were extended from first through ninth grades, and even later were further extended to the eleventh grade.”
“On Thursdays and Fridays, third, fourth, and fifth graders competed in presenting plays. My mom and dad sat in the audience,” Crapper reminisced.
Henry remembered that “There were coal-fired, pot-bellied stoves in each room of the two-room schoolhouse. Students filled the stoves each morning.” There was a part-time janitor and Henry and his brother also assisted the janitor by removing the coal ashes.
Henry also noted that “We got hand-me-down books. During World War II, students had oatmeal with raisins for breakfast with no milk or sugar as they were rationed. Lunch was offered for 10 or 15 cents. Most students brought their lunch or if they lived close, went home for lunch.”
“The teachers were dedicated and like moms and dads to us,” said Henry. “Black teachers had to have four years of college to teach, whereas White teachers could be hired with just a high school education.”
“Parents often invited teachers for dinner to discern how we were doing. Or, teachers stopped by homes to inform parents of students’ progress as well as any problems. If teachers stopped by, parents usually knew something bad had happened,” Henry stated with a grin.
“Manners were expected. For good behavior, students were chosen to put up and take down the American flag. We had morning devotions and recited a Bible verse. John Parker Jeter taught math and was the principal. He was like a father to me.”
“My favorite teacher was Mr. James Evans, from Bridgeville. He cautioned us to learn all we could because one of these days, he said, it could all be snatched away. We were taught English, math, writing, but not much about science or health. I always looked up to fellow student, Solomon Henry,” Crapper said.
“The school was the center of the community,” Crapper explained. At the end of Railroad Avenue, there were 12 businesses, two or three barbershops, a Blacks-only restaurant, a motel, a garage, and a tavern-beer garden. Children could shoot pool or dance after school at Miss Hilda Stevenson’s tavern. Miss Nona Scott allowed children of any age after school to buy cookies, dance, and also shoot pool in her little store.”
When Henry and Crapper were of high school age, during segregation, there were only three Black high school in Delaware. In Georgetown, there was a White high school and a Black high school, William C. Jason Comprehensive High School. It was built in 1950, served grades nine to 12, then expanded to seventh and eighth grades in 1953. In 1967, after integration, it was renamed Delaware Technical Community College.
Crapper went by bus from the Allen School to Jason High School. Later, when he moved with his grandmother to Lincoln, Del., north of Georgetown, he got up at 3 a.m. to travel by bus to Jason High School in order to graduate. “It was a long, cold ride,” Crapper said.
The second Black high school, William W.M. Henry Comprehensive High School in Dover, opened in 1951 and closed at the end of 1967. The third Black high school, Louis L. Redding Comprehensive High School in New Castle, opened in 1953 and closed in 1966.
The du Pont Experiment — as these improved and upgraded schools for Black students built in the 1920s were called — was considered a success and an example for communities in other states. Henry and Crapper went on to become solid members of the community. They fondly remembered their years at the Allen school, saying that the Allen school and Georgetown community had provided the necessary foundation for their success in later life. Read more of their story after graduation in an upcoming issue of Common Sense for the Eastern Shore.
Jessica Clark is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Journalism. After a 30-year career as a Public Information Specialist and photojournalist for several federal agencies, she retired to Georgetown, Del. She restored former Governor John Collins’ 1790s home on Collins Pond, teaches English as a Second Language in James H. Groves Adult High School, and is a Sussex County Master Gardener.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
