Wells, Frederick W. (Frederick Wilson), 1896-1979.

Frederick W. Wells was an attorney and housing specialist in New York City.

He was born in Tennessee, attended Wilberforce University, then Yale Law School, and later was a senior at Columbia University Law School. In 1924 he was assigned a dormitory room in Furnald Hall at Columbia University. Initially, white students assumed he was a janitor. When some white students from Kentucky associated with the Ku Klux Klan learned that Wells was a student, they circulated petitions for his removal from the dormitory. This was followed by death threats and a cross burning on the lawn outside Furnald Hall. Newspapers throughout the country headlined the story. The Dean of Columbia University's Law School, Herbert E. Hawkes supported Wells' residency on campus, as did many other Columbia University students.

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