The History of Lucas, Tucker & Co. Accounting Firm
If you're not in the accounting profession, you may only know the biggies: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deliotte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG, but there are hundreds of public accounting firms in the United States. Lucas, Tucker & Co. has long stood apart from even the biggest firms, as the New York based-venture wears the lofty distinction as the oldest black-owned CPA firm in the country, according to Black Entreprise magazine.
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Lucas
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Rewind to the 1920s. At the time, the United States had only five black CPAs. Wilmer F. Lucas was one of them. He was also the only one to be certified in a state that required previous work experience to obtain this designation. In this case, that state was New York, according to Theresa A. Hammond's book, "A White Collar Profession."
Opportunities
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Lucas garnered his work experience at Daniel Levy & Co., a Manhattan firm. According to Hammond, Lucas felt that the Jewish business owners who ran the firm were more sympathetic to the challenges Lucas faced as an African-American making his way in a white-dominated profession. At the time when Lucas was coming up, a fraternity dedicated to the accounting profession revoked a chapter's membership, charging that it was too "Hebrew."
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Opening
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The first black CPA firm got its start on Harlem's 125th Street in 1937. Lucas was choosy about the location; he wanted a place that would provide the opportunity to best serve the black community. Within five decades, Lucas and founding partner Alfred Tucker would lead the firm to open six regional offices employing more than 100 professionals, according to an article that appeared in the March 1981 issue of Ebony.
Women
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In the September 2004 issue of "The Trusted Professional," the monthly publication of the New York State Society of CPAs, Bernadine Coles Gines talks about the barriers that she encountered getting into the profession as both an African-American and as a woman. Gines mentioned that she tried to break into the profession at Lucas, Tucker & Co., only to be told that the firm didn't hire women. Gines later went on to become the first black female CPA in New York.
Affiliation
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In December 1969, nine black accountants met to start up the National Association of Black Accountants, according to an article in a March 1972 issue of Jet magazine. Lucas was one of five professionals honored at the organization's first annual awards dinner. NABA quickly grew to more than 100 members. At the time of its founding, fewer than 150 of the nation's more than 100,000 CPAs were black, according to the NABA website. Now more than 200,000 African-Americans are employed in the field; of those, 5,000 are CPAs. More than 300,000 Americans are members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
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