Archibald A. Alexander – Noted Design and Construction Engineer
Best known for designing Washington, DC s Tidal Basin Bridge and Whitehurst Freeway; first black graduate of the University of Iowa s College of Engineering; served as territorial governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands
Growing up in Iowa during the late 1880s, Archibald Archie Alexander remembers being warned that engineering was not something he could expect to succeed in as a black man. But he pushed forward anyway, later graduating in 1912 with a bachelor s degree in engineering from the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), becoming the first African American in the school s history to do so. Such perseverance would be a hallmark of Archie s life and career.