The History of The Oldest Minority Owned and Female Owned Construction Management Firm in America

Many construction companies have come and died a natural death never to return! It’s an industry that demands caution and vigilance due to its cutthroat competition that makes it hard for companies to stay atop. Nonetheless, one construction and design firm has made its imprint on this industry permanent.

Cheryl Mckissack Daniel heads the oldest African American-owned and female-run construction company in the country. It is a firm that her family built from the ground up and note, the construction industry is a maledominated industry and McKissack feels right at home!

McKissack & Mckissack is a firm that specializes in architecture, engineering, program management, and construction and is based in Washington D.C. it is one of the oldest minority-owned companies in the united states.

We can trace its root in Nashville Tennessee where it was founded in 1905 by Moses McKissack, the grandson of a slave brought to the united states from west Africa. Moses became known as a skilled carpenter during his time and teamed up with his brother Calvin McKissack to start the company. Moses entered the architectural field by working as an apprentice to a builder in Pulaski who hired him in 1890 to assist with architectural designs, drawings, and construction work. On the other hand, Calvin was educated at barrows School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and attended Fisk University in Nashville. Both brothers obtained architectural degrees through a correspondence course.

NOTABLE PROJECTS BY THE COMPANY

Between years 1895 and 1905, Moses was more involved in the construction of houses in Decatur, Alabama and Mount Pleasant, and Columbia, Tennessee. In the year 1905, his fame and recognition had grown well enough that he received a commission to build a new house for the dean of architecture and engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Soon after, he opened his first architectural office in Nashville which was followed by more jobs in design and building in the West End.

Some of the notable projects by the firm

Deryl McKissack, Rev. Al Sharpton, Cheryl McKissack Daniel, and Rev. Jesse Jackson attend the National CARES Mentoring Movement 4th Annual For The Love Of Our Children Gala at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on February 11, 2019 in New York City/Zimbio

include;

l The design of Carnegie Library on the Fisk

University campus. l The Nationals Park baseball stadium. l The National Museum of African American

History and Culture. l The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, l The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago l And a helicopter landing pad at the George

H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College

Station, TX. l They have also participated in airport renovation and modernization projects at

John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports in New York. l O’Hare International and Midway International in Chicago l And Ronald Reagan Washington National and Dulles International airports in

Washington.

By the year 1920, Moses had acquired clients throughout Nashville. Between years 1918 and 1922, he had designed more than a dozen residences in Nashville and Belle Meade. In the early 1900s, the brothers had not yet partnered. Calvin initially worked with Moses in Nashville but had relocated to Texas where he had an independent practice in 1912 specializing in the design and construction of dormitories and churches. However, in 1915, Calvin returned to Tennessee to become the superintendent of industries and a teacher of architectural drawing at the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School. Three years later, Calvin joined the faculty of Pearl High School as the director of the industrial arts department and later on rose the ranks to become the first executive secretary of the Tennessee State Association of Teachers in Colored Schools.

In 1921, something interesting happened, Tennessee instituted the registration of law for architects and the McKissack brothers were among the first recipients of the certificate of registration as architects in the state.

PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE BROTHERS

In 1922, Calvin resigned his job with the teacher’s organization and joined his older brother to establish the McKissack & McKissack. Two years later, the firm was hired to design the

Morris Memorial Building meant to house the Nashville offices of the denomination’s Sunday School Publishing Board. After the completion of the building in 1925, the McKissack & McKissack moved its offices into the same building where they remained for many years.

In 1930, the firm received Works Progress Administration contracts for the development of several public school buildings in the city, including Washington Junior High School on Nineteenth Avenue North (demolished), Pearl High School, and Ford Green School.

By the 1940s, the firm had already started expanding beyond the borders of Tennessee to others states. But in a century marked by discrimination, states were skeptical of the qualifications of black architects, but Tennessee authorities responded to their concerns in writing that stated that the firm “...somewhat unique in the fact that it is one of the few Negro architectural firms in the country” and had “done some creditable work in Nashville, including several large school buildings running into a total cost of several hundred thousand dollars”.

McKissack & McKissack received

licenses to operate from Alabama in 1941 and from Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi in 1943. The firm won a $5.7 million U.S. Federal Government contract to design and build Tuskegee Army Airfield home to the Tuskegee Airmen’s 99th Pursuit Squadron, in Tuskegee, Alabama. This was the first and the largest contract by the federal government to be awarded to a black-owned company. The successful completion of the project brought more attention to the firm to a point where one writer noted that there were no racial conflicts between the 1,600 workers.

The 1940s also saw the firm participate in several public housing projects around the country and Moses McKissack was appointed to President Franklin Roosevelt’s White House Conference on Housing Problems. Two years later, the brothers were awarded the Spaulding Medal, recognizing their performance as a Negro business firm in the U.S.

Moses died in 1952 and the McKissack Middle School is named in his honor. Calvin remained at the helm of the company leadership until his death in 1968. The youngest son of Moses, William DeBerry McKissack succeeded his uncle as the president of the firm. After suffering from a stroke, his wife Leatrice Buchanan McKissack became the CEO and under her leadership, the company won major contracts new buildings and renovations at the Fisk University, Tennessee State University, and Meharry Medical College campuses in Nashville, as well as a $50 million renovation project for Howard University in Washington, D.C., and design of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

In 1990, McKissack & McKissack opened new offices in Washington D.C headed by Deryl McKissack one of the three daughters of William and Leatrice McKissack. Later in 2002 and 2008, two new offices were opened in Chicago and Los Angeles respectively. Unfortunately, the firm’s operations in Nashville were terminated in 2002 with the spin-off companies headed by William’s daughters in other cities. As of 2013, the successor companies were reported to have more than 150 staff and over $15 billion in projects. The corporate headquarters of McKissack & McKissack Corporate are in New York City; other offices are in Birmingham, Alabama; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Memphis, and Philadelphia.

ON TRACK TO MAKE $30 MILLION IN SIX YEARS

As a woman-owned and Minorityowned business, the McKissack & McKissack firm is working on more than 55 projects in New York and Pennsylvania. The company is also partnering with notable firms like Magic Johnson Enterprises and Loop Capital to engage in infrastructure work on the project that is expected to be completed by 2025. McKissack Daniel believes that her firm will be conservatively about $30 million over the next 6 years.

MARCH 2022 | 89

Home Ownership

by Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA

Home ownership brings stability to individuals and families who have never had a dwelling place that they could call their own. There is something special about owning real estate that is unlike anything else on earth you can own.

Real Estate you own is not like cars that decay over time and you have to replace them. Real Estate you own is not like clothes that go out of style and you have to buy new ones. Real Estate you own is not like expensive vacations or experiences that only last a moment in time. Real Estate you own is not like an apartment where the landlord may increase the rent until it’s no longer affordable. Real Estate you own is not like staying at your parents house where you know can’t stay forever.

Home ownership is the beginning of wealth that increases over time and becomes your estate & legacy Home ownership is the pride of a mother nurturer and the kitchen her domain Home ownership is the pride of a father provider and protector of his territory and family. Home ownership is the foundation of permanence and the place where life happens, birthdays celebrated, deaths mourned. Home ownership is the place you build memories that can never be taken from you. Memories etched in walls and concrete, experienced in rooms and floors, Memories living in trees and shrubs planted by your hand. Howe ownership is the manifestation of you - your style, your colors, your smell, your stuff, your junk, your memories, your yard and your spaces, your life.

It’s the height markers on your first child’s bedroom wall. It’s the hearts drawn in the concrete slabs when you pour your patio floor It’s the birthday parties, and anniversaries in the living room and kitchen. It’s the back yard barbecue with friends, neighbors and family contentions it’s the high school and college graduation, and wedding receptions Its’ the family nights and block parties and the fellowship of family connections

Home ownership

It’s more than real estate. Land, brick and mortar, wood frame construction and chicken wire. It’s more than money saved, gifts recieved and grants obtained It’s more than the debt you incur to buy it. It’s more than the payments you make to own it. It’s more than the appreciation that comes with keeping it over time. It’s memories, it’s family, and it’s life that can happen in one place Until you say it’s time to move.