By Rachel Sawicki

HOCKESSIN — Serendipity. There is no better way to express the bittersweet groundbreaking at Hockessin Colored School #107 on Tuesday morning. Built 100 years ago as a one-room schoolhouse for black children, it is now under construction to become a center for diversity, inclusion and social equity.

“That one room, there were six grades, used books, we never got new books,” said James "Sonny" Knott, former HCS #107 student. “(The teacher) would say, ‘James, read page three and four.’ I read three, I turned to four, and it wasn’t there. The books would have four or five names written in them, and the names were the kids that we played with every day.”

Mr. Knott was one of several former students in attendance to help turn a new page for the school that once kept them separate from the white students “up on the hill.” And this time, the next page won’t be missing.

“I want to be able to bring my children and my grandchildren here and show them where I started from,” he said. “So when I tell them about the respect and the privilege they have now, they would appreciate it more and they will understand more.”

HCS #107 served many purposes after its closure in 1959 including a daycare, a senior center and a community service center. In 2012, Friends of HCS saved the property from a sheriff’s sale.

Lois Johnson, another former HCS #107 student, still lives just down the road from the school. She said she was devastated several years ago at the thought of losing the building to development, but now to see it physically preserved, she is grateful that she, her fellow classmates and others will get the privilege of knowing the history firsthand.

“My bones are aching but I made up my mind that I was going to come and join with everybody today,” Ms. Johnson said. “It’s really been a journey, the ups and downs and the heartbreaks and the disappointments. My sister and I integrated into the (white school) and that was a heartbreaking time in my life. But we got through it.”

David Wilk, chair of Friends of HCS #107 and an assistant professor and director of the Real Estate Program at Temple University, said in the journey to deciding what purpose the school should serve going forward, the committee knew a simple museum would not suffice.

“People would come and there might not be another reason for them to come back again,” Mr. Wilk said. “We had to find that heartbeat and that impact.”

HCS #107 played a pivotal role in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Case in 1954.

It started in 1950 with one little girl named Shirley Bulah, who always walked two miles to and from HCS, even though a school bus transporting white children passed by every day. Her parents’ request to obtain transportation for their daughter was rejected by the governor, so they went to court in 1952 and won.

Chancellor Collins J. Seitz declared that separate African American schools offered inferior educational opportunities when compared to white schools and ordered the immediate admission of African American students into white schools.

“If I take a stick pin and blood come out of you, and you take a stick pin and blood come out of me, stick ‘em together and see what color blood it is,” said former student Charlotte Emory. “We are the same.”

In 1954, the Bulah case was combined with four others to become Brown v. Board of Education and convinced the Supreme Court to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson.

“This is for you,” Mr. Wilk said to the former students. “This is to honor your legacy. It is not even conceivable to imagine what it must have been like for you to go to school here, at a colored school, and most people can’t even imagine that there’s a place called the Hockessin Colored School. We’re going to take that integration and that glory that all of you created for us, and we’re going to turn it into something magnificent in the future with everybody’s help.”

The building now totals 4,000 square feet and is only one story. Renovations will add a one-story, 270-square-foot space and will include a multi-purpose room, exhibit, offices and other support spaces.

The school will be completely renovated with all new systems, windows, doors, roofing, interior partitions, finishes and paint, according to Nicholas Michael, a representative from EDiS Company, who is leading the construction.

“When I look at the history of this building, I look at it as an ever-growing puzzle,” said New Castle County Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick. “Some pieces are bright, and some have an undertone of gray. Today we add a piece to that puzzle and it is a bright and shining piece.”

Gov. John Carney said the students’ resilience is an example to all, and in addition to reconciling and understanding the past, the state has an obligation to the future, as it relies on the children of today.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time lately visiting the school boards of the big New Castle County school districts with an idea to improve the education for the children in our city of Wilmington because we know that we can do better,” he said. “We have been outreaching to the members of the board, to the teachers, to members of the community, engaging with parents. We should be inspired by the work of this committee and what we’re doing here today and bringing new life to this Hockessin Colored School.”

A partnership with New Castle County in 2020 made the site the 250th park in the county system and it may be on its way to being  named a national park service affiliate site. Mr. Wilk said that contractors estimate the doors to the improved building could open as soon as June 2022.

“I feel that the crew are really sincere in making this momentous for us, the old ones,” Ms. Johnson said. “There’s only about five or six of us left, and to get it done now where we can enjoy and see the fruits of the labor … I was elated and surprised.”

Mr. Wilk said there are several goals within the overall mission of the center including preservation, cultural competency, celebration and tackling social infrastructure issues like affordable housing, education and health care. He added that the history of HCS #107 has recently been added to Delaware public school curricula.

“I wish they taught history in school more,” Mr. Knott said. “I wish they taught history in homes, because if they taught history in homes, we would learn how to love each other instead of how to hate each other. It wasn’t that long ago, and if you’re not careful it’ll be here again. And that I mean from the bottom of my heart.”