Myra McDaniel (December 13, 1932 – February 25, 2010) was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to be the

Secretary of State of Texas The Secretary of State of Texas is one of the six members of the executive department of the State of Texas in the United States. Under the Constitution of Texas, the appointment is made by the governor of Texas, with confirmation by the Texas S ...

Life

McDaniel was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to Eva and Toronto Atwell. She attended the Philadelphia School for Girls. In 1954, she went on to receive her bachelor's degree in English from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. In 1975, she received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Texas School of Law at

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. She married Dr. Reuben R. McDaniel in 1955, who was a Professor Management Science and Information Systems at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Myra McDaniel died of lung cancer on February 25, 2010.

Career

After graduating in 1954 from the University of Pennsylvania, she worked at

Baldwin Wallace College Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace C ...

and

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. She then went to the University of Texas School of Law, where she received her J.D. After receiving her J.D., she worked at the Texas Attorney General's office. She eventually became the Chief of the taxation division. Afterward, she entered private practice. However, she was appointed as General Counsel to the

Governor of Texas The governor of Texas heads the state government of Texas. The governor is the leader of the executive and legislative branch of the state government and is the commander in chief of the Texas Military. The current governor is Greg Abbott, who ...

by then-governor Mark White. In 1984, she went on to become the

, and became the first African American to hold the position. With that appointment, she also became the then-highest-appointed African American to ever serve in the Texas government. She went on to enter private practice again in 1987, and at her firm, became the first African American woman to lead a major law firm as a managing partner.

Honors and awards

In 2017, McDaniel was awarded the Virgil C. Lott medal by the University of Texas School of Law.

References

External links

Interview with Ms. Myra McDaniel: The Secretary of State for Texas
1984-11-28, In Black America; KUT Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (

WGBH WGBH may refer to: * WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States ** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation ** WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...

and the Library of Congress) {{DEFAULTSORT:McDaniel, Myra Secretaries of State of Texas 1932 births 2010 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American lawyers