Juneteenth: Design Legacy of Flow & Resilience

Juneteenth commemorates and celebrates the ending of slavery in the United States. In 1865 in Galveston, Texas, General Gordon Granger read out loud General Order Number 3, "The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.” The significance of this proclamation began to grow and signify the maturity and dignity of America across the country to acknowledge and influence societies that freedom was inclusive of everyone – people of all races, nationalities, and religions.

The representation of Juneteenth continues to commemorate African American freedom, which has been long overdue. For millions in the country, Juneteenth was never a topic of discussion. We didn’t learn about this in schools as in-depth as we should have. Juneteenth was a paragraph of information in middle school that was overlooked as another form of enslavement abolished in Texas in 1865 by the Emancipation Proclamation Act. Then we quickly moved on to how this proclamation just added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically during the Battle of Antietam.

But the essence we want to highlight now and moving forward with this federal holiday is the representation of what Juneteenth means within the field of Architecture. Today over 113,000 licensed architects in the US are African American practitioners. The realization that Black men and women have influenced this field for a long time but have been tucked away into the shadows needs to end. At this moment, we want to explore and showcase the contributions of the Black Community in architecture.

Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980)

He was an American Architect based in Los Angeles, California. He broke racial barriers, becoming the first African American American Institute of Architects (AIA) member and a civil leader. His architectural works were within the residential design and showcased his Gregorian, Colonial, and Spanish Colonial style. He designed numerous celebrity homes, including Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Charles Correll, and Lon Chaney to name a few.

Beverly Lorraine Greene (1915-1957)

She was an American Architect based in Illinois and New York and is believed to have been the first African-American female licensed Architect in the United States. While working with Breuer, Greene assisted with the designs for the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. Through all her life and career hardships, Greene impacted countless architectural designs and left an opening for numerous Black women to follow in her footsteps in design.

John Warren Moutoussamy (1922-1995)

He was the first African American Architect to design a high-rise building in Chicago, Illinois. He was best known for designing the headquarters building of the Johnson Publishing Company in downtown Chicago. His design remains the only downtown Chicago tower designed by a Black Architect. He designed multiple Chicago City Colleges and an additional handful of towers.

We still need to showcase many other African American architects because they have contributed to the design field and have all made impacts. Juneteenth will continue to break barriers within design and in every artistic field.