(February 23, 1890 – March 2, 1968)
from The Greenwood Project
Fisk University graduate Calvin McKissack, like his older brother Moses, earned his architecture degree through a correspondence course. In 1905 the brothers founded McKissack & McKissack, now America’s oldest minority-owned architectural-engineering firm. Calvin started a satellite company in Dallas but soon returned to Nashville to teach industrial drawing at Tennessee A&I (TSU). In 1918 he was hired as director of Pearl High School’s industrial arts department. He later became executive secretary of the Tennessee State Association of Teachers in Colored Schools. When the state enacted a law requiring architects to be registered (1921), the McKissacks were nearly banned from taking the licensing examination because of their color. State authorities eventually conceded, assuming neither brother would pass, but when administrators continued to dither after both men sailed through the exam, the national media took up the story . . . and the McKissack brothers promptly received their licenses! Calvin succeeded his brother as director (1952), heading the firm until his death.
Calvin L. McKissack (photo from McKissack & McKissack website: https://www.mckinc.com/)
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The Greenwood Project is a series of 160-word biographies of individuals who lie at rest in Mt. Ararat and Greenwood cemeteries, two historic African American burial grounds in Nashville, Tennessee. The project, which began in September 2014 (and is still available on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064806156276), shares the stories of more than 300 consequential individuals, primarily African American, who changed the course of city, state, and national history through their words and deeds. (All biographies were written by Kathy Lauder unless otherwise noted.)
Nashville Historical Newsletter 