Over 400 architects and design professionals ran a stark full-page advertisement in the October 25 edition of the New York Times in “complete commitment to and support for the protection of Black lives and the advancement of Black livelihood.”

Organized by a number of fellows from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the Architects Foundation (the philanthropic arm of the AIA) in solidarity with the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), the ad goes on to express the signees’ concern that, of the 116,000-plus licensed architects in the United States, less than two percent are Black and less than a quarter of Black architects are women—a statistic that has held steady for at least the last 50 years.