Louis L. Redding Comprehensive High School

Louis L. Redding Comprehensive High School was a public school for African-American students in Middletown, Delaware. Middletown School District 120 operated the school.^[1] It was one of several high schools that opened in Delaware in the mid-20th century during de jure educational segregation in the United States.^[2] Its namesake was Louis L. Redding.^[3]

It opened, along with William W.M. Henry Comprehensive High School in Dover in Kent County and William C. Jason Comprehensive High School in Georgetown in Sussex County, as a part of a system of high schools for African-Americans in Delaware.^[2]

History

It opened in 1953 as a replacement for Middletown School 120-C.^[3] It was constructed next to School 120-C.^[4]

Redding had grades 1-12.^[3] It generally took students from Middletown, Odessa, and Townsend.^[5] It also covered other parts of the south of New Castle County. The enrollment was 650 in 1961.^[4]

Alfred Graham Waters was the principal.^[6] He chose to have a variety of course offerings at Redding.^[4]

The school closed in 1966, and the building was given to Middletown School District 60.^[1] It, in 1969, was repurposed as Louis L. Redding Middle School (originally Louis L. Redding Intermediate School), now operated by the Appoquinimink School District.^[3]

In 2019 the State of Delaware installed a historical marker on the former school site.^[7]

See also

• Howard High School of Technology - Formerly Howard High School, a segregated high school for African-Americans in Wilmington