Meet the Black woman who leads the family business founded by formerly enslaved ancestors
The leader of the reportedly oldest Black-owned architecture, construction and engineering company in the U.S. is proud to be part of MARTA’s growth within the Atlanta metro.
McKissack & McKissack president and CEO Cheryl McKissack Daniel said more cities need platforms like MARTA to increase the accessibility of transportation for more communities.
“MARTA is such a great system,” she said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m glad that Atlanta is investing in this expansion.”
Though based in New York, McKissack Daniel explained that her firm was brought on the MARTA renovation project to partner with the H.J. Russell Construction Company, the 70-year-old Black-owned and family-operated agency in Atlanta. McKissack knew her firm’s skills in risk analysis could help support H.J. Russell’s venture.
“It’s a challenging environment in the construction and building environment. So, the more we can be supportive of each other, we should,” H.J. Russell CEO Michael Russell said in a statement “It’s a big enough environment out here that we can all have success.”
McKissack Daniel is on a tour to promote her newly released book “The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers‚” She is the third-generation leader of her firm and a fifth-generation construction designer. Launched during the Martha’s Vineyard Black Book Festival in August, the book details not only McKissack Daniel’s personal navigation in the construction industry as a Black woman, but also her family’s 230-year legacy.
McKissack Daniel held a launch event Wednesday at the Buckhead Art & Co., a community gathering Thursday evening with the Atlanta chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction at Atlantucky Brewing, and she was part of a speaker panel series Friday at the Mission GalaCon roundtable “Iron Sharpens Iron.”
McKissack Daniel commended Atlanta for welcoming Black construction designers and taking an initiative in accepting new developments.
“I think (public transportation) definitely affects the economics of a group of people if they can’t get to where they need to get at a reasonable cost,” McKissack Daniel said.
She was also adamant about Black companies helping one another, rather than trying to compete.
“We always needed to be an alliance because if you’re by yourself, it’s easy to knock you off,” McKissack Daniel said.
“It’s important that you have companies like (McKissack and Russell) around because, for one, we helped to set the example of what African American firms can be,” Russell said. “We need each other to succeed.”
H.J. Russell Construction has worked on major sites throughout Atlanta, including the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Other projects have included the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and renovations at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
In “The Black Family Who Built America,” McKissack Daniel dove into her family’s history, starting with the capture of her great-great-grandfather in present-day Ghana. He was renamed “Moses” after being enslaved in 18th-century North Carolina and trained as a bricklayer by his enslaver, William McKissack. Moses passed the skill to his son, Moses II, who carried the trade to Tennessee when he was gifted as a wedding present to his enslaver’s son. After emancipation, Moses II moved to and founded a carpentry company in Pulaski, Tennessee, the birthplace of the white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan.
“We just know that if my great-grandfather could make it through that, then I can make it through whatever is coming right now,” McKissack Daniel said regarding her ancestors’ experiences with racist intimidation. “That just magnifies the backdrop they were building their business in.”
Moses III, McKissack Daniel’s grandfather, and his younger brother Calvin became the two first Black architects registered in the state of Tennessee. Together, they established McKissack & McKissack in 1922.
McKissack Daniel said the family has continued to take advantage of educational opportunities as they progressed as entrepreneurs.
“Education is definitely required for generational wealth,” she said in the interview. “With each generation, they expanded their trade, or they increased their education and certifications. So, that just kept going.”
Collectively, the family has helped construct more than 6,000 projects nationally, many including churches and additions on college campuses. The McKissacks designed the historic Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama and the National Civil Rights Museum next to the Lorraine Motel where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.
The family was awarded the Spaulding Medal for Outstanding Negro Business by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the National Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award by President George H.W. Bush and the Presidential Design Award by President Bill Clinton.
According to McKissack Daniel, about 50 of the firm’s constructions have been designated as historical sites.
In the book, McKissack wrote: “America wouldn’t look like America without us.”
About the Author
Brooke Leigh Howard is a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Black culture team, UATL.
