From the Ballot to Breakthrough: Black Voting Power in Delaware
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For Black Delawareans, the right to vote was not truly reliable until 1965. The Fifteenth Amendment had existed for generations, but in practice Black citizens still faced uneven access, intimidation, and local barriers. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed that reality by making voting rights enforceable, not just theoretical. That was the turning point.
Once the vote became real, progress began to move from possibility to power. In town after town, and later in Dover and Washington, Black Delawareans used the ballot to build representation, demand fairness, and claim a fuller share of public life. The story of Black political progress in Delaware is not abstract. It can be seen in names, dates, offices, and victories.
Sussex County shows the change clearly
Sussex County is one of the best places to see how voting rights turned into public leadership. By the late 1990s, Sussex County had 89,689 registered voters, including an estimated 9,755 Black registered voters. Black residents were also more than 20% of the county’s population around 2000. Yet Black officeholding still lagged, especially at the countywide level. That contrast matters. It shows that access to the ballot opened the door, but sustained organizing was still needed to turn turnout into governing power.
The most visible progress first came in municipal government. In Laurel, Black leadership emerged through council representation and then mayoral leadership. The University of Delaware roster of Black elected officials identifies Roger Fisher as mayor of Laurel and also records other Black Laurel officials such as Lavonion W. Belle Sr. and Dola M. Stewart. Laurel became one of the clearest examples in Sussex County of a Black community turning voting strength into durable civic leadership.
In Lewes, the benchmark came in 1994, when George H.P. Smith was elected the first African American mayor of Lewes after serving 18 years on city council. He was later reelected multiple times. Lewes’s official African American history timeline records that milestone plainly, and Delaware Public Archives later recognized his legacy when Block House Pond Park was renamed in his honor in 2003.
Those victories were not accidents. They were the fruit of a generation that had learned how to register, organize, turn out, and keep showing up. That is the great lesson of 1965. When a people can vote consistently, they can begin to govern, not just hope. They can move from being spoken for to speaking for themselves.
Black political progress in Delaware accelerated beyond municipal government. The long climb from local office to statewide power has been remarkable. Delaware’s public history sources point to the election of Wilmington’s first Black mayor as one of the major signs of modern Black political progress in the state. That rise continued into state and federal leadership.
At the national level, Lisa Blunt Rochester became the first Black person elected to Congress from Delaware in 2016. She later won election to the U.S. Senate in 2024, and her Senate office states that she is the first woman and first Black elected official to serve Delaware in the U.S. Senate. That is not a small step. It is a historic leap that would have been almost unimaginable in Sussex County or anywhere else in Delaware before the Voting Rights Act era.
At the state level, the progress has also reached legislative leadership. The Delaware House now lists Melissa Minor-Brown as Speaker of the House, another sign that Black Delawareans are not only being elected, but also leading major institutions. In other words, this progress has not stalled. It has accelerated.
Why this history still matters
The lesson is simple. Voting rights opened the way, but voting participation built the road. Black progress in Delaware did not come from waiting. It came from using the ballot again and again, in local races, legislative races, and congressional races. Town councils mattered. Mayoral elections mattered. State House and Senate contests mattered. Congressional elections mattered. Each level of government became a rung on the ladder.
That is why this history should inspire us, but also sober us. Progress is real, but it is not self-sustaining. Turnout gaps by race still exist. The Brennan Center found a measurable racial turnout gap in Delaware in both 2020 and 2022, with the gap worsening in the 2022 midterm. That does not erase the gains. It reminds us that gains must be defended.
The old saying is still true: freedom is never finished. Rights that are unused can be weakened. Institutions that are unguarded can drift backward. Communities that stop voting can lose ground they fought hard to gain. Delaware’s history teaches the opposite lesson. When people vote, organize, and stay engaged, they can change not only who represents them, but what is possible for the next generation.
So the story of Black voting in Delaware is not merely a history lesson. It is a call to remember how much has changed since 1965, how much has been won, and how much still depends on the disciplined use of the ballot. From Laurel to Lewes, from city council to the U.S. Senate, the message is the same: the vote has power, and that power has already changed Delaware.
That is why this history should inspire us, but also sober us. Progress is real, but it is not self-sustaining. Turnout gaps by race still exist. The Brennan Center found a measurable racial turnout gap in Delaware in both 2020 and 2022, with the gap worsening in the 2022 midterm. That does not erase the gains. It reminds us that gains must be defended.
The old saying is still true: freedom is never finished. Rights that are unused can be weakened. Institutions that are unguarded can drift backward. Communities that stop voting can lose ground they fought hard to gain. Delaware’s history teaches the opposite lesson. When people vote, organize, and stay engaged, they can change not only who represents them, but what is possible for the next generation.
So the story of Black voting in Delaware is not merely a history lesson. It is a call to remember how much has changed since 1965, how much has been won, and how much still depends on the disciplined use of the ballot. From Laurel to Lewes, from city council to the U.S. Senate, the message is the same: the vote has power, and that power has already changed Delaware.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, “History of Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Voting Rights Act of 1965.” https://www.justice.gov/crt/history-federal-voting-rights-laws
- National Archives, “15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870).” https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/15th-amendment
- University of Delaware, Center for Political Communication / Delaware Public Archives, “Roster of Black Elected Officials in Delaware.” https://www1.udel.edu/
- U.S. Census Bureau, “Sussex County, Delaware: Decennial Census 2000 — Race and Population Data.” https://www.census.gov/
- Delaware Department of Elections, “Voter Registration Statistics, Sussex County (Late 1990s Reports).” https://elections.delaware.gov/
- City of Lewes, “George H.P. Smith Park” (official biography of Mayor Smith, elected 1994; reelected four times). https://www.ci.lewes.de.us/213/George-HP-Smith-Park
- Lewes in Bloom, “G.H.P. Smith Park” (notes Smith was first appointed to council in 1976 and elected mayor in 1994). https://lewesinbloom.org/g-h-p-smith-park/
- Cape Gazette, “Greater Lewes Foundation honors George H.P. Smith” (notes 2003 dedication of the park surrounding Blockhouse Pond in his name and his role as one of the first African American mayors in Delaware). https://www.capegazette.com/article/greater-lewes-foundation-honors-george-hp-smith/227215
- Lewes African American Heritage Commission (LAAHC), “Voices Heard: The History and Legacy of the Black Community in Lewes.” Lewes Historical Society. https://historiclewes.org/
- Delaware Public Archives, “Historical Markers and African American History in Delaware.” https://archives.delaware.gov/
- City of Wilmington, “Mayor James H. Sills Jr. — First African American Mayor of Wilmington (1993–2001).” https://www.wilmingtonde.gov/
- Office of U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, “About” (first woman and first Black elected official to serve Delaware in the U.S. Senate; first Black member of Congress from Delaware, elected 2016). https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/about
- Encyclopedia Britannica, “Lisa Blunt Rochester.” https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lisa-Blunt-Rochester
- WHYY News, “Blunt Rochester makes history as Delaware’s first woman, and first Black U.S. Senator,” November 6, 2024. https://whyy.org/articles/lisa-blunt-rochester-delaware-black-woman-senate-2024-elections/
- Delaware House Democrats, “Representative Melissa Minor-Brown Becomes First Black Woman to Serve as Speaker of the House in Delaware,” January 21, 2025. https://housedems.delaware.gov/2025/01/21/representative-melissa-minor-brown-becomes-first-black-woman-to-serve-as-speaker-of-the-house-in-delaware/
- Delaware Public Media, “Dems tap Melissa Minor-Brown as next House Speaker,” November 11, 2024. https://www.delawarepublic.org/politics-government/2024-11-11/dems-tap-melissa-minor-brown-as-next-speaker-of-the-house-new-leadership-across-both-caucuses
- Brennan Center for Justice, “Growing Racial Disparities in Voter Turnout, 2008–2022” (documents racial turnout gap in Delaware in 2020 and 2022). https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/growing-racial-disparities-voter-turnout-2008-2022
- Town of Laurel, Delaware, “Mayor and Council History.” https://www.townoflaurel.net/
