[6][7] Robert Charles Bates was born c. 1872 in Columbia, South Carolina, where his father was a farmer.
[1] He attended Clafin University's Normal School to become a teacher, but he was short two years from graduation.[when?
[1][8][7] Two years later he published a textbook based on his class lectures, and despite being poorly written, it may be the first architecture book authored by an African American.
[1][6] From 1897 until 1900, Bates moved to Upstate New York in order to teach mechanical drawing at Elmira Reformatory.
[1] Followed by teaching vocational trade at the Jacob Tome Institution for Black juvenile delinquents and orphans in Port Deposit, Cecil County, Maryland.