My mother was born in St. Louis, Mo. Her mother was African American and Native American. Her father was German. She was the only one of her four brothers and sisters to attend college. My grandmother left my grandfather and moved to Chicago. My mother joined her after her first husband died.

My father was born in Alton, Illinois. He was 100% African American probably descended from Nigerians brought to America as slaves. He had been in school through the fourth grade, after which he worked as a child laborer in the glass factory in Alton. He joined the army during World War I and served in France. He met my mother’s brother in the army and after the war, he came to Chicago and rented a room from my grandmother. This is how my parents met.

I believe that I inherited good genes from my parents. Although my father only went to school through the fourth grade, he was intelligent and a hard worker. My mother had attended Teacher’s College and taught school in St. Louis, MO. When she came to Chicago, she met and married my father and had four children. She was a full-time housewife and mother. She kept a spotless house and helped us with our homework. She encouraged us to do our best. However, as I grew older, I felt she regretted that she had not been able to pursue her initial desire to enter the field of business. She had been told that there would not be any opportunities for her in the business world and she should not pursue a degree in business.

Fortunately, no one tried to dissuade me from entering the field of business. I knew that I wanted to go to college and I liked bookkeeping in high school, so I majored in accounting from the beginning. I enjoyed business subjects and did very well in school. Often, I was the only female in my business classes. Prior to graduation, I was referred by the Chairman of the Accounting Department for the position of Chief Accountant at Roosevelt University. I had previously worked as a cashier and later as a bookkeeper for a neighborhood supermarket.

I was fortunate to obtain the Chief Accountant position because at that time, job opportunities for women in accounting were very limited and discrimination was rampant. The major CPA firms did not hire women as auditors giving as reasons: the need to check inventories, etc. White women were hired for write up work in their offices. Black women and men were not hired. Even the federal government who hired Black and White men into the Internal Revenue Service as Special Agents, specified in their employment brochures that no women would be hired into these positions. In 1968, all of this changed. The Black men who had been hired as Special Agents for IRS, were hired into the Tax Departments of major CPA firms and have done very well - becoming partners, etc. The doors were opened for qualified applicants in all fields, including public accounting. At that point, my work experience was in higher education and I continued working there. I even taught accounting classes at Roosevelt University.

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