The Washington bee., 1907-10-12
~ SIDNEY PITTMAN
Architect OF THE RACE.

Member Of Tuskegee Faculty for Five
Wears - Man of Character and
Worth - Mr.. Pittman VIII Marry
poria Washington Next Month.
From the indianapolis Freeman.
The heights by great men reached
and kept,
We're not attained by sudden flight;
But .hcy.while their companions slept,
We're toiling upward in the night
The immortal Longfellow, speaking
out of his great heart of hearts in
suIogy of The Builders" earnestly
reflected the sentiment of mankind
with reference to the constructive
forces Of the earth. The world re
members longest and apPlauds the
most sincerely the men who have
5ul.dcd up the waste places and who
have reared monuments in brick and
stone to commemorate the epochs Of
human development and to mark the
mile posts of the onward march OF
civilization. The thinkers, poets, ora
tors and artists have given birth to
the spirit that has made for moral
and material development, but 1t IS
the builders who have vitalized this
sorrir and given concrete expression to
the dreams, the aspirations and ideals
of the student and philosopher. The
one class has made things possible;
the other has made them actuahtes.
W. Sidney Pittman, of Washington,
d G. c0ufessedly the Negroes fore
most .rchitect in the land, and whose
greatest triumph IS embodied in the
magnificent Negro Building at the
Jamestown Exposition, IS a builder of
the tvne Of which Longfellow has so
eloqucntly sung. Combining most hap
pily the genius OF the student and
the worker with his hands, he IS both
an idcalis- and a practical man OF
affairs dreamer, if you please, and
hard-hcadcd pusher Tor results. Fol
lowing not the beaten paths trodden
bv the masses. he has wOoed fortune
as am architect-a builder of everlast-
ing temples. \ self-made man in
the best sense of the word, he has
struggled upward through the mo-
rasscs of poverty and prejudice, un-
al today he stands at the head of his
chosen profession. with a future most
bright with the promise Of higher
houors still to come.
The parents of w. Sidney Pittman
we're both cx-Slavcs. The father was
a butcher by trade, and the mother
worked as a laundress. The family
was prematurcly left without head,
and early in life the faithful mother
was compelled to assume the respon-
sibility of the support Of herself and
her three children, OF whom Sidney
was the youngest How we'll she per-
formed this sacred duty is attested
by the fact that all were given a fair
start in the struggle of eXistence,a nd
all have made good" Sidney, the
subject of this sketch, first attended
school in Montgomery, Ala, where
he was born, April 2I, 1875. Later he
studied in the schools at Birmingham,
returning finally to Montgomery,
where he finished such courses as
were available. Having heard marvel
Gus stories OF Tuskegee Institute and
what it could do for an ambitious lad,
he longed to go there At the age of
seventeen his hopes were realized,
and he entered the famous school
OF Booker T. Washington as a work
student. He proved to be an apt
pupil and soon commended himself
to the attention of the observant prin
cipal. who took a deep interest in his
fortunes. which interest continues to
This day. In 1897 idney graduated
IN wheelwrighting and structural
work, and received a diploma for
three years course in architectural
drawing, finishing also a course IN
,he Normal Department, having work
ea out all expenses.
Iuskcgee's faculty, seeing the very
bright possibilities residing in the
Young man, and wishing to develop
teacher for the school, effected an
arrangement with Mr.. Pittman by
which he would take regular course
IN the higher branches of architecture,
with special training in mechanical