Gloria Jean Wade-Gayles, longtime professor and scholar of African American women’s literature, passed away in January at the age of 88.
Dr. Wade-Gayles earned her bachelor’s degree in English from what is now LeMoyne-Owen College in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. She received her master’s degree in American literature from Boston University as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1962. One year later, she joined the faculty at Spelman College in Atlanta, but was dismissed after one year due to her civil rights activism.
After spending the summer of 1964 teaching in freedom schools and registering voters in Mississippi, Dr. Wade-Gayles began teaching at Howard University. In 1967, she moved back to Atlanta to teach at the Atlanta University Center. She earned her Ph.D. in American studies from Emory University in 1981. Two years later, she returned to Spelman, where she would stay for the remainder of her life.
A professor of English and women’s studies, Dr. Wade-Gayles was founding director of the Spelman Independent Scholars Oral History Project and led RESONANCE, a choral performance group. During her career, she had a stint as a DuBois Fellow at Harvard University and held Eminent Scholar Chairs at both Spelman College and Dillard University in New Orleans. Dr. Wade-Gayles was the author of several books, including No Crystal Stair: Visions of Race and Sex in Black Women’s Fiction (Pilgrim Press, 1984) and her memoir Pushed Back to Strength: A Black Woman’s Journey Home (Beacon Press, 1993).