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Paul Revere Williams

Paul Revere Williams was born in Los Angeles on February 18, 1894 to Lila Wright Williams and Chester Stanley Williams who had recently moved from Mem­phis with their young son, Chester, Jr. When Paul was two years old his father died, and two years later his mother died. The children were placed in sepa­rate foster homes. Paul was fortunate to grow up in the home of a foster mother who devoted herself to his edu­ca­tion and to the devel­opment of his artistic talent.

At the turn of the 20th century, Los Angeles was a vibrant multi-ethnic envi­ron­ment with a popu­la­tion of only 102,000 of which 3,100 were African American (U.S. Cen­sus 1900). During Williams’ youth the California dream attracted people from across the United States, and they mixed together with little prejudice. Williams later reported that he was the only African American child in his elementary school, and at Polytechnic High School he was part of an ethnic mélange. However, in high school he experienced the first hint of adversity when a teacher advised him against pursuing a career in archi­tecture, because he would have difficulty attracting clients from the majority white community and the smaller black community could not provide enough work.

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