As part of our ongoing Black History Month series, where we celebrate Black pioneers in the AEC industry, we’d like to honor Archie Alexander.
Archie Alexander, full name Archibald Alphonso Alexander, was born in rural Ottumwa, Iowa, on May 14th, 1888, later becoming the oldest of nine children. After attending a couple other colleges, he went to the University of Iowa to study engineering, being the only Black student there and becoming its first civil engineering graduate in 1912. After graduating, Alexander joined Marsh Engineering Company, which had recently patented a new type of bridge construction called the Rainbow Arch Bridge. After just 2 years at MEC, Alexander decided to go out on his own, starting his own bridge design and construction firm named A.A. Alexander Inc. in 1914.
The quality of A.A. Alexander’s work helped put Archie on every client’s radar, pushing past racial prejudice. He took on a partner from his time at MEC, George Higbee and renamed his firm Alexander and Higbee, later renamed to Alexander and Repass after Higbee died in a construction accident and Archie reached out to a new partner from his Iowa days. Major projects he worked on include both the Whitehall Freeway along the Potomac River in Washington D.C, the Tidal Basin bridge and seawall, also in D.C, and even the Moton Airfield in Alabama, which the Tuskegee Airmen used for training. His firm was so successful during World War II that in 1949, A&R was named “the nation’s most successful interracial business” by Ebony Magazine.
After a long career in engineering, and even a short political stint, Archie Alexander died on January 4th, 1958 at age 70.