Social and political discrimination against blacks seriously restricted any advancement. A famous U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1880 ruled that William Neal could not stand convicted of rape and murder because blacks were excluded from jury duty. As a result, Moses America, a black man, was summoned to jury duty in 1881, but blacks were not freely called thereafter. Blacks were also excluded from the practice of law. Black firemen and policemen were still not hired.


I'm not related to this family, just passing on this information, which comes from a webpage called "Black Americans in Delaware" The link for the site is listed below.
Joyce

http://www.udel.edu/BlackHistory/overview.html