Born in 1887 in Alabama, John Wesley Anderson earned his BA in 1912 from Wilberforce University in Ohio before earning his bachelor of divinity degree from Yale in 1915. As a Yale student, he was one of a group of Black students who reestablished Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. After graduation, Anderson became a professor of mathematics at St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School in Lynchburg, Virginia. He died in the U.S. Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, at the age of 71. His wife Mary predeceased him.
Image citation: Yale Divinity School class composite photographs, Yale Divinity School