[3] In 1942 he opened the John McCrady School of Art; his students included Alan Flattmann, Ida Kohlmeyer, Rolland Golden, and Robert Malcolm Rucker.

From 1930 to 1932 McCrady attended the University of Mississippi and took courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In New York City, he studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Thomas Hart Benton.

[1] McCrady developed a style influenced by the Regionalism movement; he often painted the religious and social life of African-Americans and, received positive reviews for his work.

[6] He earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1939 “to paint the life and faith of the southern Negro.” In 1940 he joined the Associated American Artists and he was encouraged by Caroline Durieux to experiment with lithography.

When he resumed his work he focused less attention to African American communities and concentrated on rural life, Mardi Gras, and The French Quarter.