Claymont Community Center Receives a National Park Foundation ParkVentures Grant

Claymont, Delaware, resident Lynne Schuman understands that the fast pace of technological change can often be daunting. A lifelong learner and active member of the Claymont Community Center’s Brandywine Senior Center, Schuman looks for opportunities to couple technology with other endeavors such as art and photography. When the Claymont Community Center received a National Park Foundation ParkVentures grant to combine these disciplines, Schuman was all for it. The community center is an affiliated area of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park for its role in the desegregation of Delaware schools in the early 1950s.

Titled “A Walk in the Park: Discovering the First State through Nature and Art,” the multi-generational program was designed to increase residents’ knowledge of Delaware and to engage in recreational and educational opportunities available at First State National Historical Park (NHP). Throughout the summer, participants aged 11 to 85 used nature, art, technology, and storytelling to share what they learned from field trip experiences to First State NHP sites and other historic locations in the Wilmington, Claymont, and Hockessin areas.

Schuman and members of the Brandywine Senior Center worked with professional photographer Brooke Malson to learn how to best use cell phones to capture creative images at First State NHP in Historic New Castle and at the historically segregated Hockessin School #107C, another affiliated area of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park.

Student participants from Claymont Community Center’s Empowered Youth Program Summer Camp traveled to the Brandywine Vally unit of First State NHP to create Prussian blue cyanotype images from natural elements, paper, and iron salts.

Students also created art collages depicting local civil rights pioneers and the movement to integrate Claymont High School in 1952.“ParkVentures funding gave youth and seniors the opportunity to learn about Delaware’s history in a fun and engaging way. We enjoyed seeing their thoughtful interpretations of what happened in our state,” said Claymont Community Center’s Chief Executive Officer Allison David.

On September 16, 2024, an art exhibition opened at the Claymont Community Center with all three exhibits displayed. Student and senior artists were on hand to discuss their work along with guest speakers who experienced first-hand the struggle for racial equality in Delaware. The exhibition fostered discussions regarding diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and furthered awareness and appreciation of Delaware’s role in the civil rights movement.

Claymont Community Center hosted an event for participants of a National Park Service—Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park symposium on Thursday, September 19, 2024. The occasion brought together representatives from Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, and affiliated sites in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and South Carolina. All three art exhibits were on display and the event included storytelling from former Claymont High School students tied to integration of the school in 1952.

First established as a national monument in 2013, First State National Historical Park was designated by Congress as a national historical park in 2015 to preserve the unique role Delaware played in establishing the nation and the triumphs and struggles of people in the state who contributed to creating a more perfect union. The park consists of six park site locations throughout Delaware, even crossing into southeastern Pennsylvania. The northern site, called Brandywine Valley, and the Sheriff's House in Historic New Castle are owned and operated by the National Park Service. The park's Brandywine Valley unit consists of more than 27 miles of trails that provide an opportunity to connect visitors to the natural resources that make the state so unique.

Claymont Community Center was founded by community leaders in 1975 to support the needs of children and families in Claymont, Delaware. The center operates from the historic Claymont High School where in September 1952, 12 African American students were legally allowed to attend the whites-only, segregated high school. That court case, Belton v. Gebhart, was combined with other court cases on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court under Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision that declared unconstitutional legal segregation of public educational facilities and advanced the civil rights movement in the United States.