A Delaware school that educated black children in the days of racial segregation has been saved from the auction block.
The Friends of Hockessin Colored School Number 107 paid Petrucon Construction $213,000 for the lien it held against the Hockessin Community Center, which owns the property, on Wednesday. It received a $100,000 matching loan from the Delaware Community Foundation's African American Empowerment Fund.
The center's five-acre site had been headed for a sheriff's sale in January because it couldn't pay off a construction debt. It was taken off the list after the Friends group promised to pay Petrucon by March 31.
The Hockessin school educated black students before a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brown vs. Board of Education, struck down racial segregation.
