THE BOARD OF THE CAESAR RODNEY SCHOOL DISTRICT

I am writing to you in defense of one hundred and two years of“Rider” pride and tradition.

As you may know the Caesar Rodney School District was formed in 1916 which was at least thirty plus years prior to the rise of the modern Civil Rights movement and thus was not a reaction to that movement as happened in some states. When formed the district was heavily rural with several small towns like Camden, Wyoming, Woodside, Rising Sun, Bowers Beach, Lebanon and Magnolia all of which had local schools. So the name unified those communities which would have been very important at that time.

The early 20th century was a time of honoring who they called “the Founding Fathers” and Caesar Rodney was one of them and from Kent County and he lived within the boundaries of what became the the school district. In his 1784 will he noted that he was a Delegate in the Stamp Act Congress, “last Speaker of the General Assembly of Delaware under the Old Government, Delegate in the Revolution Congress held at Philadelphia, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, late President and Governor of the Delaware state…”  So it is accurate to say that he was “in the thick of it” as far as the actions that lead to the founding of the United States of America.

In retrospect his greatest contribution nationally was his approximately   83 mile “ride” starting at midnight on July 1, 1776 to Philadelphia which broke a tie and allowed the Delaware delegation to vote for Independence. He did that at the age of forty seven and with poor health. Doing all that service came at the expense of his financial interests and negatively impacted his already poor health and within eight years Caesar Rodney was dead.

Whoever is behind this campaign have solely latched onto the fact that Caesar Rodney was a slave owner. The facts are that in his will he immediately freed three slaves upon his death in June 6, 1784. The remaining fifteen slaves were to be freed after varying terms of service with the added stipulation that any children born to those slaves during their time of service were to be considered free at birth.

It sounds strange to 21st century ears to hear it but by freeing his slaves at his death Caesar Rodney was considerably ahead of his times.  Like Washington and a few others this was a pretty radical move for a man living when and where he did.  

In the News Journal there was an article on football coaches in the NFL and how obsessed they become with their jobs. The article quoted an expert who noted: “In reality, we are far more than what we do. We are multi-dimensional human beings that cannot be defined by just one role we inhabit.”  That is true with Caesar Rodney. He had so many other roles in life. Like all of us he was human. He was not without sin but then none of us are and thus none of us has any business throwing rocks at glass houses. The campaign to change the name of the high school and the district is negative at its core in that someone has to” lose” so someone else can “ win.”  That is terribly divisive. All it does is take away and it improves nothing. Theodore Davis Jr, an Afro-American professor at the University of Delaware ended his June 26, 2020 opinion column in the News Journalnoting that he would like to see a “large scale monument about slavery in Delaware…” in Rodney Square in Wilmington in lieu of removing the statue. In other words we should be talking about what statues/monuments should we add that do not currently exist. We are going a step further and urging the Caesar Rodney School District campaign with the Governor and the Legislature to create and install such a monument on the Legislative Mall in front of Legislative Hall. It is long past time to permanently and publicly recognize and honor those who suffered from slavery in Delaware. We will all strongly support such an effort. It is time to unite and not divide.

KEEP the Caesar Rodney Riders of one hundred and four years of tradition AND ADD the monument honoring those who suffered from slavery.