Today, a remarkable architect. The University of Houston's
College of Engineering presents this series about the machines
that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
St. Paul, Minnesota, gave mixed messages to a child of the
1930s. The schools were integrated, and classes preached racial
equality. But then we black and white kids went off to our
respective neighborhoods. Brotherhood ended when school let out.
That's how it went in my Webster Grade School and in Marshall
High School. Now a remarkable book casts new light on all that.
It is Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice Cap
Wigington was a very important architect. He designed both my
schools. And he was black. Indeed, his office was located right
in the area where my black schoolmates went home each night. And
we had no idea who'd designed our schools. Wigington was born in
1883 in Lawrence, Kansas. His family moved repeatedly, and he
had to struggle to get schooling. He finally finished high
school in Omaha and, owing to a r