School segregation ruling, Lindbergh baby dead: The News Journal archives, week of May 12

“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Every Evening.

These archival stories use language that was common at the time.

May 13, 1932, Every Evening

Body of murdered Lindbergh baby found

The search for the kidnapped Lindbergh baby was at an end today — for the baby is dead.

But the search for the slayers was intensified a thousand fold, by order of President Hoover himself….

The little body was found by mere chance near the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, N.J., yesterday afternoon and though little more than a skeleton, was definitely identified as that of the missing child. There was a wound above the high forehead, and the skull had been broken by the murderers who stole the child from his crib March 1.

Col. Charles Lindbergh and his wife, soon to become a mother for the second time, were secluded in their home today, their unfaltering hope brought to an end by the sad certainty of death….

May 15, 1973, The Morning News

Skylab launched into doubt as liftoff damages power units

Skylab, the nation’s first space station, was no sooner rocketed into orbit yesterday than a deployment failure of its solar power wings threatened to delay and severely limit manned operations aboard the largest spaceship ever built.

The 80-ton space station took off on time at 1:30 p.m., but the vibrations of liftoff apparently damaged at least one of the two wing-like solar panels that was to provide power….

The launching of the Skylab astronauts was postponed until Sunday….

There was a serious question as to whether the second and third crews, scheduled to follow in August and November, would be able to come anywhere close to completing their plans for 56-day flights each. The original plan was for the nine astronauts to live and work in Skylab over the next eight months to test man’s ability to live and work for long periods in the gravity-free conditions….

More recent space news: Solar eclipse 2024 stirs excitement up and down Delaware

May 17, 1960, Wilmington Morning News

U.S. rejects call from Soviets for air spying apology

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was striving desperately today to revive the collapsed summit conference in Paris. The Big Four meeting turned into a debacle at the outset in a bitter trading of cold war blasts between President Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev….

In his initial efforts late last night, Macmillan failed in a talk lasting an hour and 35 minutes to placate Khrushchev….

Eisenhower, described as impassively sitting through summit tirades over the U-2 spy plane episode and then letting his fury show later in private … was understood to be awaiting the outcome of Macmillan’s efforts.

An American U-2 plane, piloted by Francis G. Powers, was downed deep inside Russia May 1. Powers was captured and faces trial by the Soviets as a spy….

Catch up on history: Y2K computer bug, Castro takes over Cuba: The News Journal archives, week of Dec. 31

May 18, 1954, Wilmington Morning News

Supreme Court says states lack right to separate Negro and white pupils

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 17 that the states of the nation do not have the right to separate Negro and white pupils in different public schools.

By a unanimous 9-0 vote, the high court held that such segregation of the races is unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Warren read the historic decision to a packed but hushed gallery of spectators nearly two years after Negro residents of four states and the District of Columbia went before the court to challenge the principle of segregation….

In its decision, the high court struck down the long standing “separate but equal” doctrine first laid down by the Supreme Court in 1896 when it maintained that segregation was all right if equal facilities were made available for Negroes and whites….

Delaware Attorney Gen. H. Albert Young said yesterday he plans to confer with state school officials as soon as possible on the next step to be taken by state schools as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedent-making opinion on segregation….

In Wilmington Gail C. Belden, president of the Wilmington Board of Education, said that while nothing definitive can be said as yet, “we are giving it very serious consideration — as we have been for some time — and will be in a position to carry out the orders as soon as they are known.”

Dr. George R. Miller Jr., the state superintendent, said the ruling “will not have any immediate effect.” He said that “it will take some time for any definite plan to be evolved. This situation has been discussed informally for some months, and we believe the first step will be to get started at the local level, in the lower grade schools.”

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: School segregation, Lindbergh baby: News Journal archives, May 12-18