Donald F. White

Donald Frank White (1908 – 2002) was a Canadian-born American architect and engineer, of African descent. He was the first Black architect registered in the states of Alabama (in 1935) and Michigan (in 1939). He had been a partner of the firm of White & Griffin Architecture–Engineering Associates; and he later worked in the firms of Giffels & Vallet, and Nathan Johnson & Associates. He also worked in the 1950s for the United States government in designing structures in Liberia. White was the first Black graduate from the School of Architecture (now Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning) at University of Michigan, both in the undergraduate and graduate program. He was the first Black member of the Detroit chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and an early member of the national chapter.