Rayfield, Wallace A.

Impact on the world

Became the second formally trained Black architect in the United States and the first to establish a practice in Alabama, designing the historic 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, a building that became a landmark of the civil rights movement.

Life & background

After earning his architecture degree from Columbia University in 1899, Rayfield was recruited by Booker T. Washington to teach at Tuskegee Institute before establishing his own practice in Birmingham, Alabama in 1908, the first Black architectural practice in the state. With branch offices across Georgia and Alabama, he designed over 400 buildings in 20 states, including the 16th Street Baptist Church, later the site of a infamous 1963 bombing during the civil rights movement, and offered mail-order architectural plans to clients nationwide.

Sources

1. Chipman Design (15 Black Architects You Should Know About); African American Registry (Black History and American Architecture)