On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with the late John Saunders Chase, the first African American graduate of and the first African American President of .
Chase was a pioneering architect who broke barriers in Texas and elsewhere. He served as CEO of John S. Chase Architect Inc., a firm he founded in 1952 after graduating from UT-Austin as its first African American architecture student. He also was the first African American architect to be licensed in the state of Texas and the first to be admitted to the and the . His architectural imprint can be seen globally. He was commissioned to design the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia.
Born on January 23rd, 1925 in Annapolis, Maryland, Chase earned a B.S. degree from and in 1948 became the first African American to enroll and graduate with a Master鈥檚 degree from the in 1952.
Chase co-founded the (NOMA) along with 12 other African American architects at the AIA convention in Detroit in 1971. When President Jimmy Carter appointed him in 1980, he became the first African American to serve on the . Projects designed by Chase鈥檚 firm include: the , in Houston, TX; the Washington Technical Institute, Links, Inc. National Headquarters, Delta Sigma Theta National Headquarters, the Harris County (TX) Astrodome Renovation, the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and Martin Luther King, Jr. School of Humanities at .
Chase was elected to the AIA College of Fellows, was awarded the AIA Whitney M. Young Citation, and was the recipient of the NOMA Design for Excellence Award for four consecutive years. He received the commendation for Meritorious Service by the Houston (TX) Independent School District and the Honor Award for Architectural Excellence in School Design by the Texas Association of School Boards for the design of the Booker T. Washington High School.
Chase died on March 29th, 2012. He was 87.
