From 1962 (or 1966, depending on the source) to 1980 the only black female licensed architect in California was Norma Sklarek. She was born in New York, educated at Barnard College and Columbia. In 1954 she took the entire seven-part architecture exam in 4 days and passed on the first try. She worked for the Dept. of Public Works, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, moved to LA to work at Gruen & Assoc. She worked there for 20 years, becoming their first female and first black director. In 1985 she was elected a fellow of the AIA and she co-founded the first all-female architect firm - Siegel, Sklarek & Diamond. She retired in 1992 and was appointed to the California Architects Board where, among other things, she was a juror for the CA Architect Exam.
Today there are only about 400 black women architects. This is such a tiny fraction of the industry, it is sad. Detroit's Tiffany Brown wants to change this through recruitment and mentoring. Check out her Urban Arts Collective, and Hip-Hop Architecture camps! Having grown up just outside of Detroit with a dad who taught Urban Planning, I heartily support Brown's approach to recruiting change-makers and architectural designers from the people who live there.
Resources
Biography.com editors (2014) "Norma Sklarek Biography
Sisson, Patrick (2017) "400 Forward wants to train the next generation of black women architects" Curbed. https://www.curbed.com/2017/
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