Fredrick Lemuel "Fred" McKissack, Senior was an African-American writer, best known for collaboration with his wife, Patricia C. McKissack on more than 100 children"s books about the history of African Americans.
Background
McKissack was born in 1939 to a prominent family of African-American architects in Nashville, Tennessee—McKissack & McKissack, "widely regarded as the oldest African-American-owned architectural and construction firm in the United States".
Career
After high school, McKissack joined the United States Marines, before earning a degree in civil engineering from Tennessee State University. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, participating in sit-ins to end segregation. In 1964, McKissack and Patricia Leanna Carwell married, eventually having three children.
In the early 1980s, the couple began writing children"s books together, focusing on African-American history, which they felt was underrepresented in children"s literature.
"In those days there were so few books for and about the African-American child. Black kids needed to see themselves in books"
Patricia had been a teacher and an editor of religious books
She did most of the writing while Fredrick focused on research. She said later, "He was gone most of the time.
He was always into an interview trying to scrounge out some little piece of information.".