COLUMBIA, Mo.
The FBI has been asked to investigate the disappearance nearly 70 years ago of Lloyd Gaines, who vanished shortly after winning a legal fight to become the first black man admitted to the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced Friday that it has asked the FBI to try and determine what happened to Gaines, who disappeared in 1939.
Angela Ciccolo, deputy general counsel for the NAACP, told the university’s School of Law that the FBI was contacted this week about the possibility of reopening Gaines’ case.
“We need to know what happened to him,” Ciccolo said, adding that many fear that Gaines was the victim of foul play.
After being denied admittance to the law school because he was black, Gaines sued and his case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1938 that Missouri must either admit him or establish a separate law school for blacks.
The school chose to open a separate school, prompting Gaines to decide to attend graduate school in Michigan. He disappeared in 1939 and was last seen in Chicago.
