When did you know you wanted to become an accountant?

I first learned about accounting during my first year in college. I had not heard of accounting or accountants before that time. I was in the business school at Temple University and one of the first required courses was accounting. I immediately liked it because to me it was similar to solving a puzzle.

When did you know you wanted to become an accountant?

I knew I wanted to be an accountant in high school after taking the bookkeeping class. I knew what an accountant was because my parents went to an African American CPA in a small town in Louisiana to get their taxes done. I always admired him and his office ever since I was a little girl. My aunt also married an accountant in 1977 and his twin brother was a CPA at Arthur Anderson in the 1990's.

In 1938, Alfred W. Tucker was the 8th #BlackCPA and the 2nd to be licensed in the State of New York. Mr. Tucker was a graduate of Columbia University and a charter member of the Omicron Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi. He founded the firm Lucas (Major Wilmer Lucas, CPA) and Tucker which was the first Black Certified Public Accountant firm in the State of New York.

When did you know you wanted to become an accountant?

Accounting 101 was one of the required core courses when I switched my major from Computer Science to Business Management in my freshman year. Accounting balanced; there was always a right answer. I liked the certainty of it. Of course, it doesn't always work out like that in real life, but it was enough in textbook practice to get me hooked!

Louis Rawlings, CPA, the 7th Black CPA hailed from Illinois making him the 3rd Black CPA licensed in the state in 1937.

In 1937, Paul G. Stewart was the 2nd licensed Black CPA in the State of Illinois, which makes him the 6th Black CPA.

No one could have imagined that in 1922 the fifth Black Certified Public Accountant would hail from NYU, one of the two top business schools, but as many of the first Black CPAs General Wilmer F. Lucas, CPA was above average!

Jesse B. Blayton, Sr, CPA graduated from Langston University and served in the US Army in World War I. Mr. Blayton passed the Georgia accounting examination in 1928, becoming the state's first black Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and only the fourth African American nationwide to hold the certification. 

Imagine sitting in a room of 49 white men and you are a black man that is trying to fulfill your dream to become a Certified Public Accountant.

Who is this gentleman? I am glad you asked.

John W. Cromwell Jr., the first Black Certified Public Accountant, graduated with honors from Dartmouth College and earned a master’s degree but chose to teach high school math because of limited practice opportunities.