As Alan N. Brown has recounted it, another probate judge agreed to tell folktales to the 5th-grade class from a black school in Birmingham. Although he had never recounted the Wells story to a black audience, he told the students the story about the face in the courthouse window, ending his tale with a moral; "You might ask what that face in the courthouse is saying," he told the students. "It says to me, 'Don't ever let this happen again!'" He asked the students if they had any questions. One little boy raised his hand and asked, "How do you know that's a black man up there?"