Paul Revere Williams (1894–1980) was a man both embraced and dismissed by the field in which he practiced. Though the architect, who was black, amassed a wide range of enviable commissions—from glamorous homes in the Hollywood Hills to large commercial and institutional projects—he struggled to be acknowledged as an equal: white clients routinely refused to shake his hand. After he redesigned the Beverly Hills Hotel, he was denied entry to the pool. He even learned to draw upside down, so that white patrons wouldn’t feel uncomfortable sitting at his side.
“I came to realize that I was being condemned, not by lack of ability, but by my color,” Williams wrote in a 1937 essay. “I wanted to vindicate every ability I had. I wanted to acquire new abilities. I wanted to prove that I, as an individual, deserved a place in the world.”
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