Ed Wells, 70, fought for fairness and opportunity in Rockford schools

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Ed Wells, a community advocate who initiated the 1989 lawsuit against Rockford Public Schools, has died at age 70.

Wells's initial goal was to ensure equal educational resources, not school desegregation.

For a decade, Wells wrote a weekly column for the Rockford Register Star focusing on local issues.

Ed Wells never sought the desegregation of Rockford Public Schools.

Wells was far more interested in the equal distribution of educational resources, access to quality teachers and preventing a plan he said would warehouse vast numbers of students in a "megaschool."

A community advocate and driving force behind the 1989 People Who Care lawsuit that eventually led to the desegregation of Rockford Public Schools, Wells died Oct. 2 at age 70 after experiencing cardia