Talk:Robert Charles Bates

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"The first certified Black architect"

There are a lot of citations that read, Bates was "the first certified Black architect" - but none of them have specified where he was certified, or how he was certified? I am not sure in the 1890s there were state architecture licenses, this needs to be resolved before it is added to the article. PigeonChickenFish (talk) 02:46, 3 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Errors

The back half of this item is likely incorrect. Robert Charles Bates, a relative who taught at the Tome school for 40 years and died in Spencer on May 2, 1950, was white and didn’t attend Claflin University. It seems two Robert Charles Bates, similarly born near Columbia, SC, have been confused. Flab99 (talk) 14:42, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the 1950 obituary citation because it doesn't fully match,^[1] which seems to be the confusion. The information about the Tome school comes from Dreck Spurlock Wilson, 2004, which is a reliable source WP:RS.^[2] PigeonChickenFish (talk) 00:47, 18 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ "Obituary for Robert Charles Bates". The Ithaca Journal. 1950-05-02. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
^ Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (March 2004). "Robert Charles Bates". African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge. pp. 38–40. ISBN 978-1-135-95629-5.

I agree about the Wilson source but continue to be perplexed that my great grandfather who Wilson accurately points out worked at the reformatory school in Elmira and the Tome school in Port Deposit for four decades identified as white in the all census years I’ve seen beginning in 1910. Within our family memory (my mom, his granddaughter, is still alive and spent time with him), there is conjecture he was mixed race but there has been no mention of his pioneering time at Claflin University as significant architect. Nor any clarity about his birth parents other than his father was born in SC and his mother Mass. So all a bit confusing Flab99 (talk) 14:41, 18 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure what happened, but at this point it would take a lot more reliable supporting sources to debunk the Elmira and the Tome school connection (which was found in Wilson). The 1950 obituary appears to have not fully matching info, so that was easy to remove. The name Robert Charles Bates is somewhat common at that time period too. PigeonChickenFish (talk) 21:25, 18 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "Obituary for Robert Charles Bates". The Ithaca Journal. 1950-05-02. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-12-18.

[2] Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (March 2004). "Robert Charles Bates". African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge. pp. 38–40. ISBN 978-1-135-95629-5.

[1]

[2]