Frank H. Wu

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This article is about the racial and legal scholar. For the sci-fi artist, see Frank Wu.

Frank H. Wu is the author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White', which argues for a new paradigm of civil rights that includes people of all backgrounds rather than relying on a black-white paradigm and that addresses forms of racial discrimination that are not obvious but subtle. Born in Cleveland, Ohio and son of Chinese Immigrants to the United States, he has appeared in the media and on the college lecture circuit, coming to public attention for his debates on affirmative action against Dinesh D'Souza and Ward Connerly, respectively.

He testified before the Detroit City Council regarding governmental reforms following the controversy regarding Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, in 2008. He has extensive media appearances, especially on C-SPAN, and has been a regular on the lecture circuit. He is represented by American Program Bureau.

Wu served as dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan. Along with Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School and Jim Chen of the University of Louisville School of Law, Wu was one of only three Asian American law school deans in the United States. He is Wayne State Law's ninth dean, having succeeded Joan Mahoney, the law school's first woman dean (1998-2003). In April 2007, Wu announced he would resign as Dean in May 2008, a year before his appointment was to end, citing his wife's health problems as the leading cause of his resignation.[1] In 2008, he was one of two recipients of the Chang-Lin Tien Award from the Asian Pacific Fund, given for leadership in higher education. Named for the first Asian American to head a major research university, the award comes with a $10,000 honorarium.

Wu also serves as a Trustee of Gallaudet University, the school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. He was previously the first Asian American law professor at Howard University, one of the nation's leading historically black schools.

Wu earned his bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1988 and his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1991, where he also served as a visiting professor for the 2002-2003 academic year, teaching Civil Procedure.

He is also writing a follow-up book to Yellow that has a focus on the Vincent Chin case. ^[1]