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Download Full Text (1.6 MB)
Download 1900 - Twelfth Census of the United States, see line 39. (2.0 MB)
Download 1910 - Thirteenth Census of the United States, see line 19. (1.5 MB)
Download Marriage License, Franklin L. Anderson &Arilla (sp?) Williams. (631 KB)
Download Marriage License, Franklin L. Anderson &Josephine Williams. (948 KB)
Download Death Certificate, Franklin L. Anderson, California State Board of Health. (361 KB)
Download 1899 Class Photo. (1.5 MB)
Description
Only four years after the University of Colorado Law School’s 1892 opening, Franklin LaVeale Anderson (ex 1899) enrolled at the law school in 1896. He is believed to be the first Black student to enroll at the University of Colorado Boulder and is the University of Colorado Law School’s first Black student.
Anderson was born a free person in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1859. During his early childhood, slavery was legal in Missouri. Slave-holding states in the Antebellum United States forbid the formal education of Black persons.11 However, records indicate that Anderson received some education in Missouri, while also taking up work as a barber, before he moved to Minneapolis in 1885 at the age of 26. There, he continued his barbering and schooling, graduating high school in 1886. While living in Minneapolis, he met and married his wife Ione Arella Williams.
The couple moved to Boulder in early 1892. They purchased multiple lots in town, living near 20th and Pine. Anderson established his barbershop on the corner of 12th (now Broadway) and Pearl Street.
In 1896, at the age of 37, Anderson enrolled at the University of Colorado Law School, using earnings from his barbershop to pay for tuition and supplies. He attended until 1899 and is included in the 1899 class photo. However, the law school faculty did not include Anderson in their list of students who should be conferred the Bachelor of Laws degree in May 1899.
Anderson attempted the bar exam in 1899, but unfortunately did not pass. Around 1900, Anderson and his wife sold their properties and left Boulder, settling in Fort Morgan, Colorado for some time. Anderson passed in 1918 from kidney failure.
Publication Date
1899
City
Boulder
Disciplines
History | Legal Education
Recommended Citation
Ciota, Rebecca, "Franklin LaVeale Anderson (ex 1899)" (1899). Black History at Colorado Law. 1.
https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/black-history/1
Comments
Original image on file with the Univ. Colo. Archives.
Thank you to the Univ. Colo. Archives for a digitized copy of this photograph.