Gebhart v. Belton

Gebhart v. Belton, 33 Del. Ch. 144, 87 A.2d 862 (Del. Ch. 1952), aff'd, 91 A.2d 137 (Del. 1952), was a case decided by the Delaware Court of Chancery in 1952 and affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in the same year. Gebhart was one of the five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court which found unconstitutional racial segregation in United States public schools.

Gebhart is unique among the four Brown cases in that the trial court ordered that African-American children be admitted to the state's segregated whites-only schools, and the state Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's decision. In the remaining Brown cases, Federal District Courts all found segregation constitutional, though some judges questioned its effects on African American students.

Background

The unusual status of Gebhart arose in large part because of Delaware's unique legal and historical position. At the time of the litigation, Delaware was one of 17 states with a segregated school system. Even though Delaware is nominally a northern state, and was mostly aligned with the Union during the American Civil War, it nonetheless was de facto and de jure segregated; Jim Crow laws persisted in the state well into the 1940s, and its educational system was segregated by operation of law. In fact, Delaware's segregation was literally written into the state constitution, which, while providing at Article X, Section 2, that "no distinction shall be made on account of race or color", nonetheless required that "separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained." Furthermore, a 1935 state education law required:

Belton

Belton may refer to:

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Belton, Texas

Belton is a city in and the county seat of Bell County, Texas, United States. The population was 18,216 at the 2010 census.

Belton is part of the Killeen – Temple – Fort Hood metropolitan area.

Geography

Belton is located near the center of Bell County at 31°3′32″N 97°27′48″W / 31.05889°N 97.46333°W / 31.05889; -97.46333 (31.058904, -97.463382). It is bordered to the northeast by the Leon River, across which is the city of Temple. Nolan Creek, a tributary of the Leon, runs through the center of Belton. The city limits extend south along Interstate 35 across the Lampasas River nearly to Salado.

By Interstate 35 it is 42 miles (68 km) north to Waco and 60 miles (97 km) south to Austin. U.S. Route 190 leads west from Belton 16 miles (26 km) to Killeen.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 20.0 square miles (51.7 km²), of which 18.9 square miles (49.0 km²) is land and 1.0 square mile (2.6 km²), or 5.08%, is water.

History

Belton, South Carolina

Belton is a city in eastern Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 4,134 at the 2010 census.

History

In 1845 a group was created to connect the Piedmont region of South Carolina by rail to the existing rail system which then ran from Columbia to Charleston. The expanded rail line ran through what was to become Belton, with a spur line which ran to the nearby town of Anderson. Because of the population explosion that occurred by the time the railroad had been completed in 1853, the state incorporated the town in 1855, with the boundaries being located within a half mile radius from the new railroad depot.

The city was given the name of Belton after the first president of the Columbia and Greenville Railroad from Newberry, John Belton O'Neal.

The city prospered not only due to the railroad junction, but also because of the area's cotton crop, which led to the establishment of cotton mills.

In 1908, a municipal water system was established. A 155-foot (47 m) reinforced concrete tower with a 165,000-US-gallon (625 m³) capacity was built. Known as the Belton Standpipe, the tower is still in use today. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 5, 1987. The standpipe is the inspiration for the yearly Belton Standpipe Festival, first held in 1987 as a fundraising event.