Meet Paul R. Williams

Read About the Architect Paul R. Williams

I came to realize that I was being condemned, not by lack of ability, but by my color.Paul R. Williams, 1937

Paul R. Williams was born in Los Angeles in 1894 and orphaned at the age of four when both of his parents died of tuberculosis. His foster mother told him he was so bright, he could do anything he wanted. Williams wanted to be an architect, but the world around him made that dream seem impossible. His high school teacher told him, “Who ever heard of a Negro architect?” Rather than give up, Williams turned that doubt into a passion to achieve his goal.

The racism he faced continued when he entered the architecture profession in the early 1920s. The United States still enforced de jure segregation, where people of different races faced legally enforced separation. Because the clients Williams worked with were predominantly white, this meant he was often hired to design buildings that would be used by white people only. He also needed to develop special skills to navigate racial discrimination. For example, he taught himself to sketch architectural designs upside down so white clients wouldn’t be uncomfortable sitting next to him at the table. He also toured construction sites with his hands clasped behind his back, because he wasn’t sure every person would want to shake a Black man’s hand, so he gave them the option of extending their hand first. Even more painfully, in his 1937 essay “I Am a Negro,” published in American Magazine, he writes of designing homes in neighborhoods where he was not allowed to live himself.

Despite these obstacles, Williams built one of the most remarkable careers in American architecture. Overcoming incredible prejudice in a predominantly white field, he became one of the first African American architects admitted to the American Institute of Architects. Williams designed over 3,000 projects over a career spanning six decades. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Cary Grant sought out Williams for his sophisticated yet understated designs that defined elegant living for the Hollywood elite. In addition to residential architecture, Williams also designed the Crescent Wing of the exclusive Beverly Hills Hotel and the interior of the Saks Fifth Avenue luxury department store in Beverly Hills—places where he would not be welcomed as a customer because of his race.

Williams never forgot where he came from, and he used his success to lift up the Black community around him. Although known mostly for serving rich clients, Williams also felt it was important to meet the housing needs of the less privileged. He designed community and cultural spaces including the first YMCA for Black youth in Los Angeles and the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Williams understood that his visibility mattered beyond his own success. As his granddaughter, Karen E. Hudson, said, “He always thought it was important to be a part of his community, not apart from his community.” Williams designed buildings for Black-owned businesses, schools, and churches that other architects did not spend much time and care on. These buildings were physical structures that aimed to amplify and uplift the achievements and abilities of individual Black people and the Black community as a whole, particularly in the face of systemic racism and historical oppression. Paul R. Williams didn’t just design buildings, he built a foundation for Black excellence throughout Los Angeles and beyond.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• Williams learned to draw upside down and walked with his hands behind his back so that white clients would feel more comfortable around him. Do you think those were acts of strength, sacrifice, or both—and what does it tell us about the nation’s racial social order that he had to make those adaptations at all?

• Williams believed that being a visible success was itself a form of service to his community. Do successful people today have a similar responsibility to serve as role models—or is that an unfair burden to place on someone just because of their race?

• Williams’s high school teacher told him that becoming an architect was an unrealistic goal for a Black man. Think about a time when someone underestimated you or told you that something wasn’t possible for you. How did that affect your choices, and how did that affect you moving forward?

The legal separation of groups of people based on race or other characteristics, mandated and enforced by government laws.

Actions stemming from conscious or unconscious prejudice, which favor and empower one group over others based on differences of race, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, language, age, national identity, and other categories.

Historical, organized, and systemic mistreatment of and discrimination towards a group or community. Oppression can be ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized.

Prejudice and discrimination against people because of their race.

Describing a problem or pattern that is built into the rules, laws, or structures of a society rather than caused by one person or one incident.