Nellie Y. McKay

Nellie Yvonne McKay (nee Reynolds; born May 12, 1930 in New York; † January 22, 2006 in Madison, Wisconsin) was an American literary scholar. She was the first black professor of African American literature.

Life

McKay grew up in New York as the daughter of Caribbean immigrants. In 1969, she earned a Bachelor Degree at Queens College of the City University of New York, at Harvard University in 1971 her Master 's Degree in 1977 and a doctorate ( Ph.D. ) is also there.

From 1972 to 1978 she taught at Simmons College in Boston, since 1978 at the University of Wisconsin -Madison, where he established the branch of Afro-American Literature in the Department of African American Studies with on. As president of the Midwest Consortium of Black Studies they helped build such departments throughout the United States.

On January 22, 2006, she died of liver cancer.

Topics

It dealt primarily with African-American literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, with an emphasis on fiction, autobiographical writings and literature colored writers.