The Man Who Built Los Angeles
A (mostly) photo essay by Chitown Kev
Yesterday, as I was reading a book for another assignment, the author casually mentioned that a particular building (a cathedral, in Las Vegas) was designed by a man named Paul Revere Williams, an African American.
It’s always little factoids in books such as this one that send me down rabbit-holes of library stacks, labyrinths of foot notes, and, at times, to the outer reaches of the internet.
I found a website called The Paul R. Williams Project, a site begun, curiously enough, in Memphis. The website has this biography.
Paul Revere Williams was born in Los Angeles on February 18, 1894 to Lila Wright Williams and Chester Stanley Williams who had recently moved from Memphis with their young son, Chester, Jr. When Paul was two years old his father died, and two years later his mother died. The children were placed in separate foster homes. Paul was fortunate to grow up in the home of a foster mother who devoted herself to his education and to the development of his artistic talent.
At the turn of the 20th century, Los Angeles was a vibrant multi-ethnic environment with a population of only 102,000 of which 3,100 were African American (U.S. Census 1900). During Williams’ youth the California dream attracted people from across the United States, and they mixed together with little prejudice. Williams later reported that he was the only African American child in his elementary school, and at Polytechnic High School he was part of an ethnic mélange. However, in high school he experienced the first hint of adversity when a teacher advised him against pursuing a career in architecture, because he would have difficulty attracting clients from the majority white community and the smaller black community could not provide enough work.
Williams did not give up. Confident in his strengths, he simultaneously pursued architectural education and professional experience with Los Angeles’ leading design firms while developing social and business networks. Certified as a building contractor in 1915, he was licensed as an architect by the State of California in 1921. Earning accolades in architectural competitions and the respect and encouragement of his employers, Williams opened his own practice and become the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1923.
Williams wrote about his encounter with that high school student advisor in his August 1963 Ebony Magazine article titled "If I Were Young Today"
“Why do you want to be an architect? Why don’t you study to be a doctor or lawyer? That was the first question the student advisor asked me when I entered high school. He stated that very few Negroes build important buildings and that I could never get a job in a top architect’s office. I think that I told him that I had heard of only one Negro architect in America and I was sure that this country could use at least one or two more. The architect that I had heard of was Booker T. Washington’s son-in-law, Mr. William S. Pittman.
I remember when I was a youngster, a friend of the family asked me the usual question—“What do you want to be when you grow up?” My answer was that I wanted to be either an artist or an architect to which he replied, “ I have never heard of a Negro architect—you had better study to be an artist.” Well, it was the challenge that decided my future.
Among the many many honors that Mr. Williams received, one of the more….uhm, interesting ones (at least nowadays) that he received (posthumously) was the 3rd Annual Donald J. Trump Award in December of 2008.
The 3rd Annual Donald J Trump Award, created and Chaired by 2007 President Ronna Brand, is conferred this year to architectural engineer Paul Revere Williams. Mr. Williams is an individual who has made a profound impact on the evolution, development and perpetuation of real estate in Greater Los Angeles. This year’s tribute takes the form of a lifetime achievement award, and will be accepted in his honor by his granddaughter, Karen Hudson. The vision, beauty and significance of our honoree’s monumental strides in architecture and in enhancing the quality of living for people from all walks of life have gone far beyond the confines of a single city. For nearly a century, this artisan literally helped shape and defined Los Angeles as one of the most impressive, charismatic and welcoming metropolises in the world.
Mr. Trump was quoted as saying:
“Paul Revere Williams left a lasting legacy on the architectural landscape of Los Angeles and his contribution to this great city should be fully acknowledged. I am honored to give this remarkable man the Donald J. Trump Award.”
“Lawdie-Be,” as my Granny would say while shaking her head.
That’s as political as I will get here.
I’d much rather admire the works of Mr. Williams, myself. Here are a few of them.
This page at the Paul Williams Project website lists so many more of the buildings that Mr. Williams designed throughout Southern California, and other places.
Because credits and permissions, I don’t feel entirely safe in adding too many more pictures...(although I might add a couple of more pictures and further links).
Additional Links:
Trojan Family Magazine: Williams the Conqueror (Spring 2004)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While many in the entertainment and media industries were saying their bittersweet goodbyes to President Barack Obama at his final annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner this past Saturday in D.C., an elite crowd was communing at the Los Angeles home of movie star Denzel Washington and his wife Pauletta to raise additional millions for one of the President’s major priorities.
Early in his presidency, President Obama insisted that all monies needed to complete the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture be raised before his exit from The White House at end of 2016. Authorized by Congress in 2003, the museum stands on a five acre-site on the National mall, near the Washington Monument, and boasts a $540 million dollar price tag.
The federal government contributed $270 million, leaving the Smithsonian and others in the community to raise the remainder. The museum reported raising just over $252 million dollars last month –not far from their $270 million goal. The museum is set to open on September 24 of this year, with President Obama cutting the ribbon.
Denzel and Pauletta said they felt compelled to open the doors to their sprawling home in the Hollywood Hills, nestled far away from prying eyes of star tour buses, in celebration of the mostly California-based supporters of the museum who donated more than $55 million dollars to the project over the past few years.
The Saturday night event raised more than $17 million and included the announcement of a hefty pledge of $10 million dollars from television titan Shonda Rhimes, who could not attend the fundraiser.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Idris Elba is in four major studio films this year, but you won’t see his face in any of them. Three of those high-profile jobs are voice roles: In addition to playing Chief Bogo in Zootopia and Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, Elba has a supporting part in Pixar’s upcoming Finding Dory. His only live-action role in the lot is playing the villainous Krall in Star Trek Beyond, where he’s buried under so many facial prosthetics that he’s more than unrecognizable — he’s a different color entirely.
I can’t fault Disney for wanting to cast Elba in all of those cartoons: The man’s got one of the best voices in cinema, rich and insinuating. And now that Elba has become something of a sci-fi staple in films like Prometheusand Pacific Rim, perhaps it was inevitable that he’d don makeup for a franchise like Star Trek. But as one of the few black leading men in Hollywood, Elba means something. So what does it say when we see so little of him?
I wish I could call all these castings a fluke. I worry they’re not. Look at Lupita Nyong’o, whose most notable roles since winning the Oscar for 12 Years a Slave have been playing the orange alien Maz Kanata in Star Wars and the white wolf Raksha in The Jungle Book. In this summer’s video-game adaptation Warcraft, Paula Patton is slathered in green paint as the half-human, half-orc Garona, which makes me wonder if she consulted Zoe Saldana for advice before taking the role: After all, Saldana has already played green in Guardians of the Galaxy and blue in Avatar. (It’s become so common for Saldana to play a different color on film that they even gave her another skin tone for the controversial clusterfuck Nina and thought nothing of it.)
You don’t see Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, and Tom Cruise painting their faces to win roles, but this color-changing gambit has practically become required of black dramatic actors who want to appear in big-budget movies. Of our A-list movie stars, the only white one regularly tinting her skin is Jennifer Lawrence, who signed a three-film contract to play Mystique in the X-Men films well before she was an Oscar-winning superstar, and whose latest go-round in the role is her least blue yet. Fox was savvy to put Lawrence’s famous white face front and center for X-Men: Apocalypse, since they now know it’s a face that sells movie tickets and magazines. So, too, could Lupita Nyong’o’s, yet since her Oscar win, no white director has cast her in a live-action role that lets her live in her own black skin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New federal data that literally chronicles life and death issues reveals that the life expectancies of Black and White Americans are converging.
The New York Times mined data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics and National Vital Statistics System and reports that the gap between the number of years each race lives shrunk from seven years in 1990 to 3.4 years in 2014, making it the smallest such gap in history. Overall, the average White person living in America lives to be 79 years old, while their Black counterpart lives 75.6 years.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Center for Health Statistics; National Vital Statistics System
The article attributes the shift to:
“Blacks are catching up,” University of Pennsylvania demographer Samuel Preston told The Times. “The gap is now the narrowest it has been since the beginning of the 20th century, and that’s really good news.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
they’re clearly glossing over the environmental impacts. I think a better method, would be for African governments to help to process the ores in less detrimental ways, while still allowing small scale miners to thrive. The Economist: A Boom in artisanal mining offers lessons in development.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Tanzanian town of Kahama, once a sleepy trading outpost, the population has more than trebled to about 250,000 in the past 15 years, town officials say. An industrial mine that started commercial operations in 2009 has contributed jobs and infrastructure, but locals say small-scale gold mining has driven the town’s explosive growth. Today, the mayor boasts, there are ten banks, 40 petrol stations and more than 300 guesthouses.
For many governments and do-good development agencies, informal mining towns are the very definition of unsustainable—dirty and disorganised, with transient populations. Most miners work clandestinely, since they do not have a legal right to dig. Working conditions are generally poor. Young men, and sometimes children, may be lowered down a flimsy mine shaft 60 metres deep on a rope. Deadly accidents are common. So is the use of mercury, a pollutant, to extract gold.
Some informal mines support killers. Many militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s lawless east at least partly finance themselves with proceeds from illicit mining. Some towns, including Angovia, have seen violence between newcomers and existing residents. And sometimes conflict can break out with formal mining companies. AngloGold Ashanti, a South African mining firm, said its plans to invest in rehabilitating Ghana’s Obuasi gold mine, one of Africa’s oldest, have been put on hold since illegal miners invaded it earlier this year.
Governments have responded to the growth of informal mining settlements in two ways. One is to evict the diggers. Ivory Coast’s government, for instance, says it has shut down more than 280 illegal sites since last year. More common, however, is for governments and aid agencies to pretend these new mining towns do not exist. The UN agency and NGO signs that line so many roads in rural Africa are conspicuously absent when the scenery turns from verdant fields to mines.
Both responses are misguided. Small-scale mining is not a curse. On the contrary, it creates jobs in some of the poorest places on earth. Globally, artisanal mines employ about ten times as many people as industrial ones. Moreover, small mining towns are less affected by the commodity boom-and-bust cycle than are towns that depend on large-scale capital investment. Big foreign mining firms tend to retrench quickly when markets turn down; small local miners tend to keep digging. Also, small miners’ earnings tend to be spent locally. In central Mozambique, for instance, increased legalisation of formerly illicit gold mining over a decade has led to a farming renaissance in many villages, alongside booms in construction and trade.
Governments that allow miners to legalise their operations see several benefits. They can keep a closer eye on labour and environmental conditions, and collect millions of dollars in taxes that would otherwise not be paid. In return, they sometimes offer miners basic services such as water and sanitation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The U.S. Military Academy has opened an investigation into a photo of 16 black, female cadets in uniform with their fists raised. The photo has raised a bit of controversy online in recent days as some have said it suggests support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which could amount to a violation of Army rules against participating in political activity while in uniform. It’s unclear what the repercussions could be for the 16 cadets in the photo, who are scheduled to graduate on May 21.
The women took the shot as part of a series that follows a tradition known as an “Old Corps photo,” in which groups of cadets take pictures in traditional uniforms. The Army Times was the first to write about the photo, reporting that “the image has been shared widely in military circles.” In its first story, Army Times was sure to point out that while the raised fist is now associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s hardly original and has been “used for centuries to symbolize resistance by a number of groups, from labor unions to suffragists to socialists to the Black Panthers.”
The chairwoman of the academy’s Board of Visitors, Brenda Sue Fulton, later told Army Times that while she tweeted out a different photo of the 16 women, she would not have done the same with the picture that shows them raising their fists. “I would not have re-tweeted the raised-fist photo because I am well aware that our culture views a black fist very differently from a white fist,” Fulton said. “I knew it was their expression of pride and unity, but I am old enough to know that it would be interpreted negatively by many white observers.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY’S PORCH