Obviously coming to the same result from an opposite direction, the Claymont board on Apr. 10 agreed to join the state board in an appeal of Seitz's ruling. The Claymont board's position on that; "Because of the significance of the decision given by [Seitz] not only to Claymont and the Hockessin school districts, but to the state of Delaware in general" the matter should be "turned over to the Delaware Supreme Court for its careful consideration." The cases were argued before that court on June 25.

Meanwhile, the Claymont board wrestled with some problems. It agreed to open its cafeterias, gymnasiums and other appropriate facilities "for taking care of people in case of atomic attack." It decided it would be "unwise to grant permission" for a student "who got married" to return for her senior year at the high school. But it was stumped when it came to knowing what to do about a bill for $148.79 received in May from Court of Chancery.

The state Supreme Court ruling, which upheld Seitz in every respect, could not have come at a better or at a worse time. It was handed down on Aug. 28, just a week before Claymont High was to reopen following summer vacation. That set the stage for some high drama.

According to both Evelyn Tryon's account and the board minutes, Stahl and the board were in a quandary about how to proceed. Without a mandate from the high court officially informing it of the decision, the board was still legally bound by the law being struck down. Responding to public and political pressure, the attorney general was expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would automatically delay its implementation.

Timing was everything. There was no guarantee the arrival of the mandate would precede the opening of school and thereby allow admission of the black children before the appeal was filed. And worked into that was the intervening Labor Day holiday weekend.

The board called a special meeting for Wednesday evening, Sept. 3 "to study the whole segregation problem." That day, according to Tryon, had been spent repeatedly telephoning the court, the attorney general's office and the state Department of Public Instruction to obtain the mandate or at least "a verbal [sic] affirmation that would make it legal to admit the students."

"Everyone had agreed to keep this calm, not to speak with the newspapers, to just make it as much like every other day as possible," Tryon said.

The necessary paperwork was completed and Pauline Dyson, principal of State Line elementary school, the area's 'colored school', told the prospective students that "the eyes of the whole world were on us here in Claymont" and that "their behavior in high school would affect all colored children everywhere." She also cautioned them to be sensitive to their white classmates who also faced a major adjustment.

The special meeting convened at 6:30 p.m.  The parents, the children and the lawyers were present, but there still was no mandate in hand.  Tyson said the board had agreed, if necessary, to go ahead and authorize admission of the children without it.

A telephone call from Aaron Finger, assistant attorney general, who read the mandate, proved to be an in-the-nick-of-time rescue. Neither the board minutes nor Tryon's talk specified at what time that occurred. When it did, however, the board lost no time in agreeing, according to the minutes, "to receive these colored children when school opens officially for children tomorrow."

That happened without a hitch. On Thursday, Sept. 4, 1952, 11 black teenagers and 274 white ones shared an opening day of school for the first time in a Delaware public high school. Salesianum and St. Elizabeth High in Wilmington and Wilmington Friends in Alapocas, which are private schools and may or may not have been bound by the state separate-systems school law, had admitted black students during the previous two years.

The black students were: Carol, Joan and Merle Anderson, Bernice Byrd, Elbert Crumpler, John Davis, Spencer Robinson, Robert and Styron Sanford, Almena Short and Myrtha Trotter. Ironically, Louise Belton, whose name gave title of the case, Belton v. Gebhart, was not in the group. She elected to return to Howard High where she would feel more comfortable. Gebhart was a member of the state Board of Education.

The next day, however, turned out to be another hectic one.

At 9:30 a.m., Miller telephoned from Dover "stating it was improper for us to keep the 11 negro pupils in our school," Stahl told the board, which met again that evening. While the Claymont board was meeting the state Board of Education also was in session "to act on some of the segregation problems as they would affect schools and reached this conclusion," he reported.

When another round of telephoning failed to produce a definitive course of action, Claymont took control.

Claymont High held a faculty meeting that afternoon and 25 of the 26 members, including principal Haig Kupjian, signed a statement which declared: "Students, regardless of their race, color or creed, have a right to considerate treatment at the hands of those having the responsibility for administering public schools." The petition urged that the black students' "registration as bona fide students of  Claymont High School should stand."

The board agreed. According to the minutes, both Fletcher and Stahl "felt that it would be most humiliating to these colored children to be kicked out of our school." Tryon put it in even stronger terms. She quoted Stahl as telling Miller "the children had already been admitted and that we were dealing with human beings, people with feelings, not just a legal case."

The state official backed down. The minutes report that Miller called back and that the school secretary went in person to the State Line school, where Stahl had gone to confer with Dyson, to deliver a message "to the effect that the 11 Negro children could remain in the Claymont school until further notice from the courts or from the office of the attorney general or from the state [office] of education."

That advice was never countered. Meanwhile the Hockessin district admitted the one black child on whose behalf that suit was brought and a few days later the board in the single-school Arden district declared its elementary school, which was a feeder to Claymont High, open to all residents of that district.

Tryon in her talk noted that the entire Claymont community shares credit for a completely peaceful integration of its school -- contrary to what happened later in Milford, Del., Little Rock, Ark., and other places affected by Brown v. Board of Education. "We had so many people to help and the natural attitude of acceptance was so great that the integration of Claymont High School moved ahead without any problems for the next two years," she said.

The first, and apparently only, disruption came at the 1954 graduation when a white boy refused to partner with a black girl while processing to receive their diplomas. When the boy bolted the line "the next young man thought quickly and just moved up and things moved along smoothly, without interruption," Tryon said.

Board minutes in the autumn of 1952 tied up a remaining loose end. They noted, without comment, that the state board had agreed to pay the $148.79 that the Claymont district had been billed for court costs.