One of the first black women to head an English department at a major research university, she worked for diversity in the literary canon as well as in the classroom.
An award-winning researcher and teacher, she was named the Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Professor in 2007.
Wall attended Rhodes Preparatory School in Manhattan, and studied piano under Margaret Bonds.
In 1972, Wall started as a professor at Rutgers University, reflecting that: "When I arrived, I found that there were conversations that I could see myself in, which was very different from my experience in graduate school.
[6] Wall died of complications from an asthma attack, at her home in Highland Park, New Jersey, on April 4, 2020, aged 71.