Taylor, Robert Robinson

Impact on the world

Became the first Black student admitted to MIT and the first formally trained Black architect in the country, designing 25 buildings at Tuskegee Institute including Booker T. Washington's own home, and was honored with a U.S. postal stamp in 2015.

Life & background

Born just three years after the end of slavery to a formerly enslaved father, Taylor became the first Black student admitted to MIT, graduating in 1892 with an architecture degree and becoming the first accredited Black architect in the United States. Recruited by Booker T. Washington, he spent roughly 40 years at Tuskegee Institute building its architecture and engineering programs and personally designing 25 campus buildings, including Washington's own family home, while also designing buildings at Selma University and the Colored Masonic Temple in Birmingham.

Sources

1. MIT Black History (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); NC Architects & Builders (NC State University Libraries); BlackPast.org