McKissack, Calvin Lunsford

Impact on the world

Co-founded McKissack & McKissack with his older brother Moses in 1905, and when Tennessee enacted an architect licensing law in 1921 designed in part to exclude Black applicants, state officials assumed neither brother could pass the exam and nearly barred them outright before relenting; both brothers passed, drawing national media attention.

Life & background

A graduate of Fisk University who, like his brother Moses, earned his architecture credentials through a correspondence course built on skills passed down from their formerly enslaved grandfather, a 'master builder,' Calvin McKissack co-founded McKissack & McKissack in Nashville in 1905, now recognized as the oldest minority-owned architectural-engineering firm in the United States. He briefly ran a satellite office in Dallas before returning to Nashville to teach industrial drawing at what is now Tennessee State University and later directing the industrial arts department at Pearl High School. When Tennessee passed an architect licensing law in 1921, state authorities nearly barred the McKissack brothers from taking the exam because of their race, assuming that if forced to take it neither would pass; both passed regardless, prompting national news coverage of the episode.

Sources

1. Nashville Historical Newsletter (Calvin McKissack); BlackPast.org; Tennessee Encyclopedia