[1] He was the first professionally licensed African American architect in Virginia in 1922 and in the District of Columbia in 1924.

He earned a Bachelor of Science from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1898.

He earned Master of Science degrees from Morris Brown College and Wilberforce University.

She was a granddaughter of Henry McNeal Turner, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal church, the first independent black denomination founded in the United States.

In 1902, Lankford moved to Washington, D.C., to finish the design of the True Reformer Building.