"[2] A former student recalls that, in 1979, McKay provided the class with photocopied versions of Native Son by Richard Wright and Black Manhattan by James Weldon Johnson, books that were then out of print, from her own rare copies.
[3] According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, in 1991 she was offered the Harvard University post in Afro-American Studies that was later taken by Gates, whom she had recommended in her stead.
[7] She was also advisory editor for the African American Review,[8] president of the Midwest Consortium of Black Studies[8] and a member of the Board of Directors of the Toni Morrison Society.
The university held a national symposium in her honor April 1, 2006, including a short film Remembering Nellie McKay by Pete McPartland Jr., and readings by more than 40 fellow academics from across the country.
[2] McKay wrote more than 60 articles and essays in books and journals on figures such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker, touching on themes of black literature, American Literature, women's writings and on political issues of interest to the academic community.