Patricia Washington McGraw, a longtime Arkansas-based professor, passed away on June 25. She was 90 years old.
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Dr. McGraw graduated from the formerly segregated Dunbar High School at the age of 16. She began her postsecondary education at Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia. She ultimately transferred to San Francisco State College (now University) in California, where she earned her bachelor’s degree and her master’s degree in American literature. She received her doctorate in sociolinguistics and Black studies from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. McGraw’s career in higher education began at what is now Philander Smith University in Little Rock, where she chaired the humanities division. In 1971, she became the first Black faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Later in her career, she served as a professor of English and African American studies at the University of Central Arkansas.
In 1983, Dr. McGraw founded the McGraw Learning Institute: Abilities Unlimited, an organization dedicated to teaching Black children through sixth grade the importance of their African and African American history and heritage. The institution operated until 1994.
Throughout her career, Dr. McGraw authored several books, including Hush! Hush! Somebody’s Calling My Name (Aduana Publishing Co, 2000). She was a member of the National Association of Black Storytellers and a founding member of the Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society in Arkansas. For her many career accomplishments, she was inducted to the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2004.