Mary Washington, 99; First Black Woman to Become a CPA

Mary T. Washington, 99, the first African American woman to become a certified public accountant, died July 2 of natural causes at a nursing home in Chicago.

A native of Vicksburg, Miss., the former Mary Thelma Morrison moved to Chicago to live with her grandparents after her mother died when she was 6. A high achiever in math, she began working after high school graduation in the black-owned Binga State Bank. Inspired by her boss, bank Vice President and Cashier Arthur J. Wilson, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Northwestern University in 1941.

Washington, who started her first accounting firm in her basement when she was a student, was recognized in a 1943 study by the National Assn. of Black Accountants as the country’s first black woman CPA and 13th black CPA.

Her story was detailed in a 2002 book, “A White-Collar Profession: African American Certified Public Accountants Since 1921,” by Boston College accounting Chairman Theresa A. Hammond.

In 1968, Washington, with one of her earliest employees, Hiram Pittman, and Lester McKeever, founded Washington, Pittman & McKeever, which remains one of the nation’s largest black CPA firms. She retired from the firm in 1985 at 79.