Author Description

Gwendolyn McMillan Lawe was born in Emory, Texas, (in the "Wolf Community") the only daughter of A.C. and Modis McMillan. She attended Sand Flat School (in Emory, Texas), St. Paul High School (in Hunt County), and graduated from Rains High School (in Emory). Among the first of Sand Flat (a Rosenwald school) students to graduate from Rains High School (the county's only white high school), she graduated third in her class. Her favorite teacher, Mrs.Audie Shiflet, taught her shorthand. Because of Mrs. Shiflet, she pursued a career in teaching-majoring in business and teaching shorthand and typing. From Rains High School, Gwendolyn attended and graduated from Henderson County Junior College and East Texas State University where she received a Bachelor's Degree and a Master's Degree. Following in the footsteps of her father, Gwendolyn McMillan Lawe became a teacher in the Dallas Independent School District at Hillcrest High School. She later transferred to Thomas Jefferson High School, where she is today. Being a teacher is paramount in the writer's professional career; however, she co-founded and served as director of College Bound Tours. She conducted workshops and tours to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for young people interested in attending college (1989-2003). She also co-founded the A.C. McMillan African American Museum where she serves as the director. Her volunteer work with several organizations is extensive. In 2003, she received a fellowship to study at the prestigious Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. While at the Smithsonian, in her spare time she researched her family's history and the history of African American educators in her hometown. Her assignment at the Smithsonian was to research the United States Supreme Court Decision Brown v Board of Education for the upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration and exhibit (2004). Most recently, the writer has dedicated her time to documenting the history of the education of African