Shirley Graham's role as the wife of W. E. B. Du Bois, whom she married on 14 February 1951, has overshadowed her significant contributions to the arts. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, a period when music and theater provided little opportunity for black women, Graham achieved distinction as a biographer, playwright, musician, composer, stage director, and educator. She first received national recognition in 1932 when she became the first black composer in the United States to have an opera, Tom-Tom, professionally staged. Graham was also one of few black women to have had all of her plays performed, although they were never published. During this same period she lectured widely on the influence of African music in western culture and the role of blacks in American theater. During the mid 1940s and the 1950s Graham wrote children's books which focused on famous blacks.

Lola Bell Graham was born 11 November 1896 in...