Late 19th century African-American Kalamazoo builder Albert White will be honored on Friday with the unvieling of a bust at the Kalamazoo Public Library’s downtown branch.
Who is Albert White?
According to a KPL page, White was born in Canton, Indiana, the son of freed slaves who, according to family legend, had walked from South Carolina to Indiana.
Ryan Gage is a local history specialist with KPL.
He said White's father died when he was young, leaving his mother to raise him and his many siblings.
"Because his mother had several other kids Albert unfortunately was put on a farm away from the family from the age of 7 until 15."
Gage added that at the age of 16, White moved to a farm in Kalamazoo, where he would discover a different line of work.
"He stumbled into the building and Masonic trades and apprentices with a local builder here in Kalamazoo for about six or seven years."
According to White's KPL page, this apprenticeship was unpaid, but it would give him the skills he needed to open his own construction contracting business in Kalamazoo at the age of 25.
Gage said White's company would go on to become very successful, with White having a knack for his trade.
"From all accounts he seems to have been an incredibly determined man who knew a lot about his business and was very good at making connections with other people," Gage said.
"His company was one of the largest contracting companies in the state of Michigan. And he employed both Black and White employees."
According to Gage, White's business would build many historically significant buildings in Kalamazoo during the late 19th and early 20th century.
"Unfortunately, very few of them are around anymore. He was involved in building the Illinois Envelope company building, which today stands as part of Kalamazoo County's Department of Health and Human Services building," Gage said.
"He was involved with building the First Congregation of Moses Synagogue. That was on Park Street for many years, but unfortunately is no longer here as well. A lot of paper mills he was involved in. Several that were along East Michigan Avenue in the 1920s and 30s, including the Hawthorne Paper Company."
In addition to these projects, he said White also supervised masonry work on Western Michigan University's East Hall, now known as Heritage Hall.
Gage said he hopes White's accomplishments will encourage those who visit his bust, which will be moved to KPL's local history room after it is unveiled.
"We have tours all the time of first graders from the Kalamazoo Public School system that come through getting a tour of the library and they often stop right where the bust will live," Gage said.
"It will be an opportunity for us as librarians to talk about Albert White and to just mention the fact that he was able to be incredibly successful during a time period when he was definitely facing challenges and hopefully that will inspire some of our younger users here at the library."
White’s bust will be unveiled at KPL’s Van Deusen room Friday at 4pm.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
