There are many words used to describe Dr. Gloria Wade-Gayles: scholar, trailblazer, civil rights activist, mentor, revolutionary, beloved professor, colleague, shero. All of them fit. All tell the story of a woman whose life and work reshaped African American literary criticism, Black women’s studies, and generations of students who passed through her classroom at Spelman College.
Dr. Wade-Gayles died on Jan. 27, 2026. She was 88 years old.
She first arrived at Spelman in 1963 as a young faculty member. But, as education journalist Dr. Jamal Watson has written, her time there was cut short when she was dismissed because of her civil rights activism — “a badge of honor,” he notes, that showed her willingness to sacrifice professional security in service of justice.
Two decades later, in 1983, she returned to Spelman as a professor of English and women’s studies. This time, it would become her academic home for the rest of her career. While there, she also founded the SIS Oral History Project and RESONANCE, a choral performance group that reflected her deep belief in memory, voice and collective expression. She was hailed as the “Queen Mother” of the Spelman sisterhood.
On “Closer Look,” host Rose Scott reflected on what made Wade-Gayles so distinctive.
