Walter Thomas Bailey: Staring Into the Yawning Gulf of Eternity (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798335803458)

Walter Thomas Bailey was a Black American born in 1881 in Kewanee, Illinois. His parents had been enslaved until just four years before they moved to Kewanee in the late 1860s. Walter grew up as one of only 40 or so Black people in the city of 5,000 residents, several of whom were relatives.

Yet, Walter T. Bailey became a pioneer in many ways:

likely the first Black American to graduate from Kewanee High School (1900);
the first Black American awarded a bachelor of science degree in architecture from the University of Illinois (1904);
the first licensed Black American architect in Illinois (1905);
the first Black American to receive a master's degree in architecture from the University of Illinois (1910);
likely the first Black American architect in Memphis (1915);
the first licensed Black American architect in Chicago (1924).

As Walter grew up in Kewanee, he was encouraged by his family, other Black Americans in the community, and many White Kewaneeans to reach beyond what his forebears were able to achieve. Walter learned pride in accomplishment, be it in work, play or education. He ravenously sought those opportunities to learn about the new world order around him and how he could fit into it successfully.

As Walter made his way through high school, while accepted by his classmates and most of Kewanee, he nevertheless knew he was a Black American. At the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, Walter again knew he was a Black man, one of only 10 Black students and thus not allowed to eat or live on campus, among other indignities. He knew in 1904 that he was the first Black person to receive a B. S. in architecture from the U of I. And he knew in 1905 that he was the first licensed Black architect in the State of Illinois. His success to-date was despite his Blackness.

But when Walter was hired in 1905 to teach at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, it was precisely because he was a Black man, not in spite of the color of his skin. The school's principal, Booker T. Washington, was recruiting trained Black professionals to teach at his institution and to instill in them the truth that Black people could teach, practice medicine, manufacture products, design houses, build houses. Walter again learned that there were no limits on what Black Americans could do for themselves and for others.

For the next 10 years living in the Tuskegee Institute community, for the first time in his life, Walter could simply be. He could simply be an architect, not a Black architect.

But when he left Tuskegee for private practice, first in Memphis and then in Chicago, Walter faced the tension of being a Black architect in greater America while just an architect in Black America.

Walter devoted his life to designing first-class spaces for Black communities, built by Black contractors and lived in by Black residents. He knew the potency of his work and the role it could play in bringing the vision of Booker T. Washington to fruition.

Unfortunately, after Walter died, the importance of his work and its role and influence in shaping Black communities were generally forgotten.

Within the last few decades, some of Walter's work has been rediscovered. This book is an attempt to dig a little deeper so as to provide a better understanding of the scope of his work and the extent to which Walter helped Black Americans build both communities and pride. While the book still exhibits only a subset of the spaces Walter Thomas Bailey had been asked to create, those spaces can be a potent example to show Americans - Black and White - what an architect with Black skin can contribute to the betterment of the country and all of the people living in it.

Author: Dean R. Karau
ISBN-13: 9798335803458
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 09/18/2024
Pages: 276
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.42lbs
Size: 11.00h x 8.50w x 0.58d