A White-Collar Profession
African American Certified Public Accountants since 1921
Theresa A. Hammond
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 01/2003
Pages: 232
Subject: Social Science, Business and Economics
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807874943
DESCRIPTION
Drawing on interviews with pioneering black CPAs, among other sources, Hammond sets the stories of black CPAs against the backdrop of the rise of accountancy as a profession, the particular challenges that African Americans trying to enter the field faced, and the strategies that enabled some blacks to become CPAs. Prior to the 1960s, few white-owned accounting firms employed African Americans. Only through nationwide networks established by the first black CPAs did more African Americans gain the requisite professional experience. The civil rights era saw some progress in integrating the field, and black colleges responded by expanding their programs in business and accounting. In the 1980s, however, the backlash against affirmative action heralded the decline of African American participation in accountancy and paved the way for the astonishing lack of diversity that characterizes the field today.