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Architecture
Although the profession of architecture has historically been inaccessible to African Americans, a number of blacks have made significant architectural contributions since the colonial era.
Early Involvement of African Americans
African Americans first built houses on slave plantations in the antebellum South. Archeological evidence suggests that the clay-walled quarters in which slaves lived incorporated methods and styles that their builders brought from West Africa. Shotgun houses—which are usually one story high, one room wide, and several rooms deep—became ubiquitous in poor white and black Southern communities. These houses were probably first built by slaves from the West Indies and Africa. African Americans also worked as laborers to construct opulent, Western-style mansions for plantation owners.
After the Civil War, some African Americans received architectural training as part of curricula that were designed to teach practical skills. The Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, for example, began an architecture program in the 1890s, and its students planned and constructed several of the buildings on that renowned campus.
While most black architects could not design buildings for white clients, church construction was a field open to African Americans. William A. Rayfield was a talented black architect who began his career at Tuskegee, going on to construct the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. This church, which became a symbol of the civil rights movement after the 1963 bombing there that killed four young girls, became a historic landmark in the 1980s.
Dream Seekers
Paul Revere Williams (1894–1980)
Paul Revere Williams was born in Southern California in 1894. After the death of his parents when he was just age four, Williams was raised by a family friend. He attended public high school in Los Angeles, then put himself through the Los Angeles School of Art and took part-time architecture training at the University of Southern California.
In 1921, Williams received a license to practice architecture in California, and a year later, he founded his own business. His designs for suburban and country estates incorporated Mediterranean, Spanish Revival, and English Tudor themes, blends that appealed to California residents at mid-century.
As Williams's reputation grew, he received commissions to design houses for such Hollywood stars as Lon Chaney, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Anthony Quinn. Williams also designed the opulent Saks Fifth Avenue building in Beverly Hills, codesigned the flying saucer–shaped restaurant at the Los Angeles International Airport, and oversaw additions to the Beverly Hills Hotel in the 1950s. Williams achieved professional acclaim, becoming the first black member of the American Institute of Architects and winning appointments to state and national housing commissions.
After 1950, when modernism became the dominant architectural style, Williams was criticized for his traditional designs. In fact, however, Williams's work showed a unique ability to accommodate his clients' eclectic tastes while obeying sound design principles. In recent years, as modernism has fallen out of vogue, Williams has again been hailed as a talented architect who achieved considerable success despite racial barriers. Williams died in Los Angeles in 1980.
The Late 1800s and Early 1900s
At the turn of the nineteenth century, several African Americans earned degrees from prestigious architecture schools in the North. George Washington Foster Jr. attended the Cooper Union, obtained a license in New Jersey, and became a draftsman in a white-owned firm. Verner Woodson Tandy, who went to Tuskegee and Cornell University, became the first African American–licensed architect in New York State. In 1914, Foster and Tandy collaborated to design a Harlem townhouse for Madame C. J. Walker, the black millionaire who made her fortune by developing and selling hair care products.
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