Examining Frank Adair Jr. as an African American CPA pioneer: A Historical Note

              Accounting Historians Journal
Volume 39, Number 2
December 2012
pp. 81-96
Keith Hollingsworth
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE
EXAMINING FRANK ADAIR JR. AS AN
AFRICAN AMERICAN CPA PIONEER:
A HISTORICAL NOTE
Abstract: In 1932, Frank Adair Jr. achieved his Certified Public Ac­countant
(CPA) status as the sixth African American CPA in the US
and only the second in the Deep South. Although his active profes­sional
career was brief (5 years), it typifies not only the difficulty
experienced by an African American achieving this designation in the
Jim Crow South, but also the factors that were necessary for such an
achievement to occur in that time period. First, Adair Jr. practiced
in a dynamic and vibrant segregated business community. Second,
he was educated at a black college. An African American who wanted
to stay in the Deep South would have had no other option. Third,
he benefitted from a strong professional mentoring relationship that
enabled him to forge his career path. Inadvertently, Adair Jr. was
omitted from the 1990 NABA report of the first one hundred African
American CPAs. This historical note seeks to correct that omission.
Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank Frank Adair III and
James Adair for sharing information about their father with me, Belinda White,
Cheryl Allen, Alison Ligon, and two anonymous referees for their comments on
earlier versions. The usual disclaimer applies.