But this should not be a surprise. People of color make up a strikingly small percentage of architects in the U.S. with various estimates putting it at around 2% of the more than 115,000 registered professionals in the country.
The Black Lives Matter protests tell us, forcefully, that underrepresentation of people of color in any industry is not — and should not — be a surprise. That also holds true in architecture, where most people can probably name just a few architects — maybe Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen and Sir Norman Foster — that are, almost certainly, all white men.
Amongst the names was Paul R. Williams who we’ve featured a few times on the site, particularly his work on the LAX terminal area.