As the first Black member of the ASLA, this groundbreaking landscape architect helped inspire future generations to pursue the profession he loved
hater have been around for a long , long time . They exist well before the late great legend of hip - hop the Notorious B.I.G. help popularise the term to the mainstream in the 1990s . One might even argue that the first hater was a farmer named Cain who killed his brother Abel . In the case of Charles Edgar Dickinson , Jr. , the first Black person admitted into theAmerican Society of Landscape Architects(ASLA ) , hater were there at the start of his career , but his legacy has eclipsed them all .
Dickinson was the young penis of his class at The Ohio State University , and his friends and professors monish him from follow up on landscape architecture as a profession . They could not see a path to success for the aspiring designer . Yet by the time he fine-tune in 1930 , Dickinson had prove to the haters what he himself knew to be true : winner was his destiny . While none of his classmates received employment offers upon graduation , Dickinson received multiple .
Horticulture and natural design were part of his pedigree
Dickinson was born into the nature life style and into a salient family , and there was little reason to ever doubt he would excel . His forefather , a professional gardener , own and operated a landscape company in Dickinson ’s hometown of Columbus , Ohio . Dickinson accompanied him on landscape line , and it was through this fostering that the son learned “ a wealth of practical experience . ”
But he did n’t just ascertain the beauty of nature from his father . Dickinson ’s female parent was known for her exceptional entertaining acquirement — which included adorn the inside of their home with element from nature . The interior of their abidance often was clothe with pink , reddened , and yellow gladiola , palms , ferns , snapdragon , and roses .
Embracing plants as a profession and a hobby
After calibrate from college , Dickinson accepted an appointment at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama , where he was tasked with landscaping the campus and teaching phytology . He also worked as an assistant to the greatest “ flora doctor ” in the mankind — George Washington Carver .
After leaving Tuskegee , Dickinson moved on to teach at other schools , including two historically disgraceful college and university ( HBCUs ) . The first was South Carolina State University , where he was a professor of gardening and landscape computer architecture . Then in 1940 he join Lincoln University in Jefferson City , Missouri , a schooltime constitute for costless and formerly enslaved people by inglorious soldier who fight back in the Civil War . Dickinson spend 24 twelvemonth as a salient member of the Lincoln faculty and left a lasting impingement on the biotic community .
As a prof in the department of agriculture , Dickinson developed a syllabus of courses in landscape painting architecture , ornamental gardening , agriculture , floriculture , turfgrass direction , and weed scientific discipline to balance out the schooltime ’s course of study . He planned much of the university ’s landscape gardening , laid out the flower bottom throughout the campus , and conducted field of study on perennials such as chrysanthemums . The university glasshouse were plan by Dickinson ; in them he arise poinsettias , which he gifted to colleague every vacation time of year .
Dickinson saw the shortage of landscape painting architect and the excess of body of work as an opportunity for his people .
plant life were n’t just Dickinson ’s professing ; they were also his hobby . He loved peak and was an active member of the Men ’s Garden Clubs of America , now known asThe Gardeners of America . Through his individual practice he often serve install gardens for flora fan and friend at no billing . Dickinson also made regular appearances before garden clubs in Jefferson City , giving lead on best landscape gardening and plant tending as well as host a weekly garden program at a local radio receiver station . Beyond the world of horticulture , Dickinson ’s talent extended to prowess . Several of his watercolor drawings were displayed at various property in his aboriginal Columbus .
A lasting legacy in and out of the classroom
As a man of the minute , perhaps inspired by crossing paths with American polite right hand leaders in his puerility , Dickinson is credit as a groundbreaker in vary the interest of students from the pop career choices at the time – medicine , law , and theology – to landscape architecture . He became a vocal pleader for the discipline , and he saw the shortage of landscape painting architects and the surplus of work as an chance for his people .
And Dickinson knew a thing or two about opportunity , because throughout his lifetime it came in abundance . A triple Buckeye , he returned to his alma mater to garner a master ’s degree in horticulture and a Ph.D. in floriculture . As one of the few sinister landscape architect of his day , he stayed book and blessed . Dickinson ’s help were in such requirement that he was able to turn down design work and jobs on a regular basis .
While his landscape painting architecture classmate and professors may be long forgotten , Dickinson ’s legacy will carry on to stomach solid for generations to come . The Dickinson Research Facility in the College of Agriculture , Environmental , and Human Sciences at Lincoln University is named in his honor . It ’s a lasting tribute to a world who exhibit that hater can be your ultimate motivators .
— Abra Lee is a southern horticulturist and generator of the approaching bookConquer the Soil : Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country ’s Gardeners , Farmers , and Growers .
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Gardening and plants played an influential role in Dickinson’s early years. His father owned a landscaping company, and his mother practiced floral design in their family home.Photo: W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312), Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, UMass Amherst Libraries
Aside from his duties as a professor, Dickinson enjoyed designing landscapes for friends and family, hosting a gardening show on the radio, and painting with watercolors to capture the beauty of the outside world.Photo: courtesy of Dreck Spurlock Wilson. Graphic:Fine Gardeningstaff.
The accomplishments of Charles Edgar Dickinson are chronicled in the bookAfrican American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945,edited by Dreck Spurlock Wilson.Photo: Dreck Spurlock Wilson
