A PEOPLE’S PROGRESS, PART 2 OF 3

America, we are not done yet. But we must prove this to ourselves.

Greetings,

I am happy to continue dissecting the profile of success on “Hollywood Architect,” Mr. Paul Revere Williams, in this second part of the series. Let’s jump in.

Over Williams’ lifetime, he turned the world of architecture upside-down (he literally designed homes upside-down for Whites who did not want to sit next to him). Can you imagine the gall? Williams could and did, and then he perfected the technique.

Williams also designed renowned commercial projects like the Music Corporation of America (MCA) headquarters, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Sunset Plaza Apartments.

Williams worked on the west coast too. He became licensed in New York and Washington D.C. and designed many civic buildings, from public schools to sites on Howard University’s campus; the Hollywood YMCA and the 28th Street YMCA; several hospitals and churches; and public housing projects in L.A. and D.C.

He designed a 125 housing unit and recreation center for the Army at Fort Huachuca, a project at the Roosevelt Naval Base, and more. He even donated the plans to build the St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee (1962).

“Expensive homes are my business, and social housing is my hobby.”

Paul Revere Williams

Williams designed hotels, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Palm Springs Tennis Club (a joint project with Quincy Jones), the La Concha Motel, and the Baldwin Hills Mall. You can read and view so much about his life and legacy in the annals of American History. And in 1952, he designs and builds his family’s dream home in the upper-middle class neighborhood of Lafayette Square in L.A.

Faith Over Facts

When I consider that a man born in the late 1800s conquered a predominately white occupation as he did, I know Blacks have made progress. Yet, we lost much of our momentum. Had we sustained an overcoming mentality, we, no doubt, would have seen more Williams, Washingtons (Booker T.), and Walkers (Madame C.J.).

What we can do to continue along the road to progress is recognize the formula for success—not just financial wealth. American History teaches us that several factors combine to create a wealthy nation. Adam Smith’s opus in the 1776 Wealth of Nations describes them as low taxes, a stable currency anchored to gold, free trade, and limited government. Steve Forbes, publisher, and businessman, recently stated that the 18th century was our most successful, adding that a wealthy nation allows people the freedom to pursue opportunities to improve their station in life along with the pursuit of enhancing goods and services like Williams and others did.

Successful Blacks typically employ History and financial guidance to advance their trajectory in life and create generational wealth. They learn how to STOP, DROP, and ROLL. In simple terms, successful people:

STOP ruminating on worst-case scenarios which stifle progress.
DROP all defeatist mentality.
ROLL with the punches, making the most of their opportunities.

Here is how my suggestion to STOP, DROP, and ROLL applies to Williams:

• Williams didn’t get stuck on what happened in his past; he used it as motivation.
• Williams did not allow racism to nullify his aspirations. He said, “If I allow the fact that I am a Negro to checkmate my will to do, now, I will inevitably form the habit of being defeated.”
• Williams drew those masterful upside-down sketches for clients while applying for architectural competitions that allowed his work to be recognized and desired by people, industries, and corporations nationwide.

Williams honed his craft, took care of his family, networked, and is still remembered today, 43 years after his death in 1980. Unsurprisingly, Williams was also registered Republican—a historical trend I see among successful Blacks that aren’t publicized. In fact, in 1959, the GOP called upon Williams to draft a statement of policy and objectives.

Interestingly, today’s most vocal Blacks have joined liberals in vilifying the conservative values of the Republican party. They mock the party’s focus on self-determination and the economy, but I have never met a poor person who was not concerned about the same things. Have you?

Democrats have been historically more inclined to treat marginalized people as lazy, dim-witted, and in need of social programs to help them. My research has shown that success among any people, especially Blacks, flourishes to the contrary.

Despite their public appeal, history proves that Black families had more success before the Democrat-backed social programs of the 60’s. Seventy years later we see the remnants of projects that undermined Black families and Black communities.

Put this way by Black economist, Thomas Sowell,

“Despite the grand myth that black economic progress began or accelerated with the passage of the civil rights laws and “war on poverty” programs of the 1960s, the cold fact is that the poverty rate among blacks fell from 87 percent in 1940 to 47 percent by 1960. This was before any of those programs began.

Over the next 20 years, the poverty rate among blacks fell another 18 percentage points, compared to the 40-point drop in the previous 20 years. This was the continuation of a previous economic trend at a slower rate of progress, not the economic grand deliverance proclaimed by liberals and self-serving black “leaders.”

… Nearly a hundred years of the supposed “legacy of slavery” found most black children [78%] being raised in two-parent families in 1960. But thirty years after the liberal welfare state found the great majority of black children being raised by a single parent [66%].”

Thomas Sowell “A Legacy of Liberalism” 

“Everything that sounds good ain’t good.”

We may have been poor, after Reconstruction, but we were coming out of those levels of poverty at a faster rate. We were focused on prosperity and the desire to make something of ourselves. Along with a decreased poverty rate, we had more belief in our ability as a people when there was less government involvement and assistance. It is a sad fact, yet we have seventy years of nominal growth and tremendous blight to prove it.

I hope you are picking up what I am putting down. We have so much to learn from history’s trailblazers and economists. But the best is yet to come. Please check back tomorrow when I wrap up the formula for success and share tips on what we should consider doing right now. Don’t miss it.

Yours in progress and love. Really,

Leah

“For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but serve one another through love.”

Galatians 5:13 (CSB)