Only 0.3 percent of licensed architects are black women. A Knight Arts Challenge grant winner led by Tiffany Brown wants to change that This past August, the 400th African-American woman was licensed to be an architect in the United States. She wasn?t the 400th this year, or even this decade. She was the 400th in the history of the profession.
The career path women of color take to become architects has traditionally been blocked by exclusion, discrimination, and a series of historical and structural inequalities. Tiffany Brown, an architect from Detroit, wants to do better, and build a more accessible road for the next generation of black female architects and urban planners.
?These students have the opportunity to design a livable city, they just don?t know that yet,? says Brown.
Tiffany Brown

Yesterday, Brown?s vision picked up substantial support. Her proposal for a program to support the education and career development of the next 400 African-American female architects, 400 Forward, received a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation via its Knight Arts Challenge, which picked 29 programs focused on Detroit.
Brown herself is an African-American woman who grew up in Detroit, and she aims to show students from her hometown that someone who comes from the same city, attended the same schools, and defeated the same odds they face?can become successful in the field of urban design.
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